Past and Future
by Hitokiri-san
Summary: CH19. When Battousai the hitokiri is sent to his future self in a time error, both hitokiri and rurouni find intense problem in adapting to their counterpart's beliefs. How will they fare, when Saitou is added into this hectic affair?
1. To face your past

**Past and Future By Hitokiri-san  
  
Disclaimers: I wish I'm Viz, but I ain't; RK is not mine and will never be (sob) Author's note: This is my first stupid fanfic and English's my second language so please don't sue me or hurt me or hit me with anything hard!  
  
Ch1 To face your past  
**  
Memories are always sweet, aren't they.  
  
Kenshin looked down on the clear blue stream, violet eyes misted as he recalled the peaceful time he'd spent here.  
  
That was twenty years ago, but even now it seemed so clear...  
  
" You kicked me into that waterfall, didn't you." Kenshin said aloud, narrowing his eyes as he turned around to face his master. The memory, though decades ago, still brought a wave of humiliation over him. Hiko smirked, raising the cup to his lips.  
  
" Aa...did I, now?" the swordsmaster replied slowly, eyeing his baka deishi with obvious amusement as a light shade of pink worked its way to his pale cheeks, "now that you've mentioned it, I do remember something like this...you were messing away with that Do Ryu Sen and then suddenly you tripped over and fell into the water. Tis not my fault if I got a baka deishi who doesn't even know how to walk properly."  
  
"Kuso," the former hitokiri shot him a Battousai death glare, turning to stare at the flowing stream again. It was no use. Turning Battousai wouldn't wipe that arrogant grin off his shishou's face, and he couldn't throttle the man if he wanted to twist facts...he'd be flattened long before that. Maybe staying with his shishou for the winter was a mistake after all. Cursing Hiko silently under his breath, he continued brooding before the stream. Yes...it nearly took the hell out of him to endure Hiko's training, but all the while he was thankful. Hiko had been a good shishou, a replacement for the father lost to him. He smiled a little as old memories glided slowly through his mind.  
  
Kenshin stood still as the tall man sneaked up behind him, swiftly and effortlessly as a shadow would have been. He tensed slightly; sensing the familiar ki right at his back. "Trying to kick me in again?" he gracefully dodged to one side, aiming a playfully reproving glance backwards, "I'm not a child anymore, as you might remem..." the samurai stopped short as he bumped into something...no, someone hard and solid. He could hear the surprised cry of the "someone" along with his own.  
  
"What the...I should have sensed his ki...how did he get to my back without me and shishou noticing?" In his confusion he did what a samurai would do in this situation: attack first, ask questions later. Unsheathing his sakabatou in an arc of silver he brought it down right on the person he'd bumped into a fraction of a second earlier. He blinked in shock as another arc of light struck up to meet his own. This guy, a samurai? How interesting...  
  
Sword clashed against the other's, Kenshin stared into his opponent's face. He took in the first sight, blinked furiously, and focused his violet gaze again.  
  
No...I must be dreaming...perhaps too much sake.... it's an illusion...the rurouni thought feverishly, while a part of his brain shouted furiously that he did NOT have any sake that day, nor was there anything wrong with his sharp eyes. Everything's just about crazy, yeah right. What the hell did he think he was seeing? He blinked a few more times. The cold, amber gaze before him did not vanish. He was staring into the eyes of...  
  
" BATTOUSAI!" the redheaded samurai managed to choke out as he realized just whom he was fighting against.

* * *

Utterly confused, Battousai detached his katana from his opponent's sakabatou and leaped backwards, His high ponytail fluttering over his midnight blue gi as he surveyed the man before him. Nani? This man, with flaming red hair tied to the nape of his neck and a ridiculous pink gi... he looked exactly like...like him. Now what was this madness here? One moment he was in his room spinning his top, and then he ended up in...Well, this place does look familiar. He cast his eyes about nervously, desperately rearranging his thoughts. There's a strangely familiar ki around here too.  
  
How ridiculous. He hated being confused. Confusion during a mission meant instant death, and though the manslayer couldn't care less about dying he wouldn't waste his stupid life that way.  
  
Battling the mess of confusion spinning around his head, Battousai forced his mind back to the precise, methodical hitokiri mode. Maybe...just maybe, I've got a twin brother that I haven't heard of till now and he's standing before me, he mused, arranging matters neatly in his young mind. Well done, Himura. It all made sense! He turned his golden eyes back to the warm violet, suppressed excitement flitting through them as it had never before. I have a relative on this earth. It was a great shock but, in the same time, pleasant. Someone that would share the life with him ...  
  
His heart plummeted as he looked into the purple shade of his companion's eyes. He was thinking along the same lines as well. Has he realized the fact as well?  
  
It was then the boy hitokiri thought of another dark possibility that would have ruined the situation.  
  
HE knew I am the Battousai. Would he, then, despise me of what I have done? Would he understand my ideals, or would he object to it the way Shishou did? Well, in a way, Shishou was right. I chose the wrong path and now I am trapped for god-knows-how-long.  
  
It suddenly occurred to him how much he missed his shishou. Shaking his head slightly, Battousai tried a polite smile. It came out pretty peculiar. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd smiled.  
  
Fine then, it didn't matter.  
  
"May I have your name?" he asked, frantic to drop the icy tone of his much- hated job. The last thing he needed was either to provoke or scare the samurai before him and have him gone without being able to ask anything out of him. He waited with baited breath as the fellow redhead ran his hand through his long mane nervously.  
  
Kenshin was struck absolutely dumb. There he was, staring at a younger replica of himself, yet a painful reminder of his past...  
  
Hitokiri Battousai. There he stood before him- dark blue uniform of the Ishin shishi. Blood red hair swept into a topknot. Even the amber eyes glinting in the sunlight, though softened considerably in the current moment.  
  
He glanced sideways. Hiko was still with him, staring at the stranger with something akin to shock. But that shock was somehow mild. The insanity of this had caught his arrogant shishou off his guard, for sure; however he was able to remain unmoved - the man wasn't the 13th master of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu for nothing.  
  
So he wasn't dreaming. Quickly he jumped to the same conclusion as the man before him- this was some twin brother lost to him when he was Shinta, never mentioned by tousan or kaasan. This was the only possible solution that came to his mind.  
  
The rurouni inhaled deeply. His master's presence had a calming effect on him. He ran a hand through his hair, just in time to catch the absurd question voiced by his younger counterpart.  
  
"May I have your name?" Along with a strained smile.  
  
Interesting question. "It's...it's Kenshin. Himura Kenshin." He returned the smile, all the while doubting whether his assumption was right. There was something about the ki of this man that made him highly uneasy. Was it the way it was too similar to mine, except it's definitely colder? Kenshin shook the thought away vigorously, concentrating his gaze on the other redhead's face...  
  
And cringed as the samurai stepped back, horror and disbelief mixed on his face.  
  
"Wh...what's the problem?"

* * *

  
  
Battousai tightened his grip around the hilt of his beloved sword. It wasn't his character to be emotional, but the answer from the rurouni had shattered any and every assumption that he had in his head. He was supposed to be the Himura Kenshin, though little people had referred to him as that. What was this man trying to do, forging his own name in front of him?  
  
"Liar." The hitokiri hissed to what he formerly believed to be a brother he was going to have. An imposter? Yah right. No! If he were an imposter he'd have turned on his heels and ran. Or drawn his sword and fight. Either way, it'd be more logical than what this guy was doing, introducing himself with his name. Impossible.  
  
Kuso. Was logic ever of any use?  
  
"You are lying. Because I am Himura Kenshin." The redheaded hitokiri said, emphasizing every syllable, "also known as Hitokiri Battousai, as you've mentioned."  
  
It was Kenshin's turn to grip his hands tightly over the saya of his sakabatou. His thoughts went exactly the way Battousai's did. So, this samurai, this other "me", is gonna raise up another "False Battousai incident", his mind informed him, then added a slight alter to the message.  
  
Or put it this way. He is indeed your brother and he doesn't know it and someone's been using him to cause you trouble.  
  
Nodding slightly to his conclusion, he stepped forward calmly. The very move seemed to have rung off the hitokiri's danger alarm, for he narrowed his amber eyes and began re-sizing him immediately.  
  
"No point arguing over that name. See...if you're Himura Kenshin then you should know Shishou. Sessha is sure he'll give you a plain idea just who is the real Himura Kenshin, aka Himura Battousai." His voice wavered over that name. The rurouni gestured towards Hiko, who had his brows furrowed deeply. Hiko inclined his head slightly in reply.  
  
"Shi...shou?" Battousai jerked his head, abruptly noticing his presence. Hiko had shielded his ki well, making it seemed like a faint aura far away. Meeting the well-known dark eyes, he lowered his gaze, suddenly becoming very interested in the hem of his hakama. Hiko didn't say anything; actually he had no idea what was going on.  
  
It wasn't as if he would show it. But one thing he was sure: he'd taken only one baka deishi in his life, and both redhead before him appeared to be using the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu.  
  
It didn't make sense.  
  
"Shishou...are you still angry with me?" Battousai inquired softly, amber eyes fading into purple at the sight of his master, "you were right. I've become a mass murderer and there is no way out. I'm stuck with the Ishin shishi, being their most effective hitokiri. I...I'm..." he stared hard into the ground, afraid to meet the cold, frustrated glare of his former master. He wasn't in time to see Kenshin's horrified expression, nor Hiko's genuinely disturbed features as both of them finally caught up with what had happened.  
  
At the time when Battousai had gathered up enough courage to look up, he saw Kenshin and Hiko staring blankly across each other. Hiko had arched his brows so high that they were in danger of disappearing behind his dark bangs; Kenshin's expression was one of a hundred emotions mixed together, totally unreadable.  
  
"Could you name this era for sessha, de gozaru. " Kenshin's tone was sort of tired.  
  
It was a while before Battousai finally got what he meant. He snorted a bit.  
  
"Bakumatsu. What do you expect it to be?"

* * *

Kenshin felt torn between being sick and confused.  
  
He's me, the fifteen-year-old Hitokiri Battousai that had been the fear of Kyoto. It sounded funny though; of all the times he'd fought the hitokiri in his mind and nightmares he'd never thought he would see him so concretely in real life.  
  
And all the fuss about a missing brother or something...  
  
Hiko glanced to and fro between the two samurai, disbelief visible in his eyes. "He's you. Right, Kenshin?" For once in his whole life he'd referred him as Kenshin. What a miracle.  
  
"Hai, he's Battousai during the Bakumatsu," Kenshin rubbed his eyes exhaustedly. He really didn't know what to do with his shadow self.  
  
Battousai was hopelessly flustered. Everything was far beyond his understanding and he had a feeling that things weren't going the way it should.  
  
"Shishou? What...who is this man?" he mustered the strength to ask.  
  
Hiko's mouth was set in a grim line. "For details you should ask him. There's only one thing I can tell you: you're both Himura Kenshin aka Hitokiri Battousai...you are his past and he's your future."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Sessha don't know how you get here, but sessha believe sessha is the 29- year-old you and it's the 11th year of the Meiji era." The rurouni explained patiently, watching his clone self steadily. With the hue of his eyes returned to violet Battousai really looked like his little brother. He had a sudden impulse to stroke his hair affectionately.  
  
"Huh?" Battousai repeated, not at all understanding, "you mean I've got through fourteen years and skipped the whole Bakumatsu into this...this Meiji era?"  
  
"Right." Kenshin said smiling, "no war here, and you're – or rather I'm – a carefree rurouni wandering the countries."  
  
"Great! So I'm out of that hitokiri mess." Battousai's eyes were alight. He grew silent for a moment, suddenly overcame with an idea. "Is it alright for me to stay here?" he asked respectfully as if consulting his older brother. Kenshin smiled sadly.  
  
"Sessha is afraid you can't. If you don't return to the Ishin shishi they will lose, there'll be no Meiji government and no me as well." It was indeed hard to push himself back to the hitokiri madness. He –this boy with the high ponytail at his back – would have to go through what he'd went through again. Gone mad with grieve over the blood he'd shed...losing Tomoe...wandering for ten harsh years...no, he couldn't do it. And on top of all...  
  
He had no idea how to revert him back to the Bakumatsu anyway.

* * *

Battousai bit his lower lip at the reply.  
  
"You can't do that to me. I'm also you, right? You can't send me back to that hell of murder! I...look here, the new era was established as you and I wanted. So what's wrong that I stay here with you?" his eyes flashed angrily, hand on his katana once more.  
  
"Maa...maa," Kenshin eyed the assassin calmly, indifferent to his menacing advance, "I don't want to do that, but think..." he placed one hand gently on the hitokiri's shoulder, his voice filled with compassion, "it's because you brought forth this era that sessha is able to stand here talking to you. If you don't return to the Ishin shishi, think what'll happen to them...to Katsura-san...to history. I'll no longer be here. And so will you, if you stay. This world will be ruined."  
  
"Katsura-san..." Battousai hesitated for a moment. What he wants all long is my skill in wielding the sword. Let another Battousai work for him, now that I've accomplished what I started, he thought darkly.  
  
"How can you be sure that the Meiji government won't be set up without me? Maybe it'll go well on its own without Hitokiri Battousai." Battousai snapped at his older self, challenging his logic.  
  
"Sessha knows...because people here still called me Battousai. Everyone knows Hitokiri Battousai vanished after the Battle of Toba-Fushimi. That year- sessha was eighteen." Kenshin retorted, a sad smile pulling at his lips, "you can't get out of there before this battle, Himura." He knew he hated people calling him Battousai; so he decided to address his shadow self as "Himura". It sounded sort of strange though, calling somebody else with his own name.  
  
Battousai knew he had his point. The rurouni seemed to have better logic than he did and he was momentarily speechless. There was no way he was going back. He'd never liked killing and now that he'd gotten out of it he couldn't bring himself back to the maze that haunted his soul. Nightmares. Blood on his hands. Never, if he could help it. He had returned to his shishou and nothing else seemed to matter.  
  
"There is still a chance," he said, smirking a trifle, "that I can stay here without altering history. And anyway, none of us know here how to bring me back to the Bakumatsu. I'm stuck here, ain't I. I'm not going anywhere." He tossed his high ponytail triumphantly.  
  
Sly little bastard, Kenshin thought irritably, before remembering that this boy was also him.  
  
"If you aren't going Sessha is going to Kuzu-Ryu-Sen you back there." The rurouni told the hitokiri tartly. The latter snorted scornfully.  
  
"Even if you're my future self you're not gonna Kuzu...huh? What's Kuzu-Ryu- Sen?" he asked with childish curiosity.  
  
Gleefully, Kenshin spotted his advantage over his younger self. "Aha, Sessha forgot you don't know the succession technique, do you?"  
  
"Don't tell me you do. Shishou's gonna kick me...you in the butt before you can even ask for it." The hitokiri stole a glance at Hiko, who then gave him a fairly nasty look.  
  
"Sessha is sorry, but that's the case."  
  
"Nani! Shishou, it's not fair! Why would you teach him that? I thought..." he briefly recalled the last words Hiko'd thrown him the year before...no, in this case fifteen years before.  
  
"Just leave and do whatever you want to do! I don't care about such an idiot like you anymore. " With that Hiko had stomped away, leaving him standing there near the waterfall.  
  
The same waterfall splashing over there. Some things never change.  
  
Hiko gave him a hint of a smug grin, staring at this other "baka deishi" with something close to affection. "I had no choice. You here went poking his nose into some Meiji government business, stupid as usual."  
  
Both Battousai and Kenshin glowered at the comment. Battousai muttered something about a shishou with an unchangeably arrogant character.  
  
"Can I have the technique too shishou?" Battousai asked, attention diverted off the subject.  
  
Hiko flinched internally at the thought of one more blow being dealt over his chest, this time with a real katana while Kenshin watched amusedly. "Absolutely not." Came his gruff reply.  
  
Scowling, Battousai bumped his older self. "Hey, teach me it."  
  
"No way."  
  
"Then I'm gonna run down to Kyoto and tell everyone that Battousai is back." The hitokiri smiled evilly, eyes clouded in a thin mist of amber.  
  
Kenshin still had the sense to sweatdrop. "Well, the truth is, you'll learn it in your future anyway, so there's no point in...er...you know what sessha means."  
  
Battousai didn't have the mood to investigate the past-and-future issue. "Well, forget it for the time being. So what am I going to do here? You see...it's not my time. And stop staring at me like that, you're stuck with me now."  
  
The rurouni blinked. "Oro? How should sessha know."  
  
"You're hopeless." Hiko shook his head at the wanderer, then turned to the hitokiri briskly.  
  
"You want to go down to Kyoto for a walk? It's a lot different from it was fifteen years ago."  
  
The hitokiri nodded. Hiko turned to Kenshin. "Oi, baka deishi, take 'yourself' down for a walk." It was a command more than anything.  
  
Kenshin was not quite happy with this, but knew better than to spend the day arguing with his clone self. He raised his eyes to Hiko, this time serious.  
  
"Shishou, it's a bad idea. I'm quite a scene with my hair and sword and cross scar without a twin self walking beside me."  
  
Twin Battousai. Enough to scare the hell out of anybody.  
  
"Just a short one." Hiko said, bending down to retrieve the sake bottle long forgotten, "now go and stop bothering me."  
  
"I'll bring you some sake." Battousai said sweetly as he started walking downhill. Kenshin just rolled his eyes at this.

* * *

Battousai looked around with mild interest as the cold breeze tugged at his hair and sleeves, ignoring the people who kept throwing odd sort of looks on the pair of them. The city had been uncharacteristically peaceful this day, a contrast to the one he was in a few hours ago. There was no trace of fighting, bloodstains and human gore that wouldn't keep off the streets at the times of revolution.  
  
Corpses, of course, were out of the question.  
  
Kenshin kept close to his clone self, unsure why he should be so uneasy with someone who was really himself. "If we happen to run into someone we know, remember that you're Himura Kentai, Himura Kenshin's younger brother."  
  
Battousai sharply detached his gaze from a food stall. "Why don't you be Himura Kentai, Himura Kenshin's older brother while I be myself?"  
  
Kenshin raised his brows, imagining himself to be smacking Battousai upside the head with his sakabatou. "Because...the trademark of Hitokiri Battousai is a cross scar across his face, my friend. And you'll find that some people in this era is more comfortable with me as Battousai." Though not myself, he added as an afterthought.  
  
Battousai knitted his brows and ran a hand across his single scar. "Whatever. Aren't you going to show me around the city?" Kenshin nodded casually, suddenly noting that it was queer for him – when he was Battousai – to show such amount of emotional changes on his face.  
  
Maybe he's being truthful with me- that is himself, of all people. The hitokiri was a few steps in front, taking in the city around him once again. I wonder if he' s met Tomoe already, Kenshin wondered wistfully. Probably not.  
  
"Hey Kentai, wait up!" Kenshin deliberately called out.  
  
He thought he heard a small "kuso" coming from the younger man.

* * *

Saitou Hajime was not in the best of his moods. He had been listening to a ridiculously long, boring yet important report that very morning, threatened a particularly stubborn suspect with death like he had millions of time in the Bakumatsu; and now he'd an extremely annoying investigation at hand. Kyoto wasn't such an interesting place to be in, especially when he had a job at hand.  
  
Worse still, he was sent to ask for someone's favour – a certain stupid, over-idealistic man with hair like flame and a rurouni smile plastered on his face. He scowled at the prospect of having to ask for that idiot's favour. Sure, Battousai was an interesting opponent and he'd love to have a last fight with him again. But he really couldn't stand the former hitokiri at normal times; he almost had a fit the first time he saw the Battousai doing the laundry.  
  
Battousai's womanly enough without doing womanly things like the laundry, he decided.  
  
The wolf snapped his mind off the thoughts as a distant figure silently walked towards him, a streak of reddish hair flying behind him. Too far to make out the features, but then how many people had red hair like that? Well well well...speak of the devil...  
  
He stopped, pulling a cigarette from his pocket while the figure continued to move with smooth, liquid-like motion. Saitou noticed that he was subconsciously sticking to the shadows of the street. He held a humourless smile. A hitokiri is a hitokiri after all.  
  
The man went on his way, slipping past the flow of people like a mere shadow. Saitou tensed, amber gaze fixed on the forthcoming assassin. Is that Battousai's ki? Yes, it did seem familiar to him, but then...since when had his ki gone so piercingly cold?  
  
Saitou was long since familiarized with Kenshin's ki, which was a far cry from that he possessed when he was a hitokiri. The assassin had somehow managed to drop the steely, dangerous sense from it, and the new ki – if described in colour – was a warm rich purple while the old one was, like his eyes, an impassive, cold sort of dark amber.  
  
The former Shisengumi felt unease growing at his mind. Changing his mind, he decided to walk up to the rurouni instead of standing here waiting for him. With quick long strides he walked towards him, all the while battling down the instinct to grip the hilt of his katana.  
  
The distance between them shortened, and one close look at the former hitokiri had confirmed his worry.  
  
Himura Battousai just stood there, high ponytail fluttering in the wind. Saitou took one swift look at the high-tied ponytail, the daishou attached to his obi, then at the Ishin shishi uniform he was currently wearing. He gazed into the amber eyes and all was clear.  
  
Battousai had either came to his sense finally or had totally lost it.  
  
"Battousai." He greeted the former hitokiri, unspoken questions in his voice. Battousai censored him with his amber gaze, seemingly surprised by what he saw.  
  
"Saitou Hajime." He returned emotionlessly, "don't suppose to see you so soon."  
  
Saitou was tired of his over-polite manner before, but now the lack of manner in this man seemed more irritating. He blew a ring of smoke right into his face.  
  
"I was just thinking of sending for you but now you're here so that's fine." He returned coolly, "Isn't it a bit out-to-date to wear the Ishin uniform, huh?" A smirk split across his face.  
  
Unluckily, Battousai didn't see the point. "You want to finish the business don't you? And ah...I've never dream of you being a cop in this era. Aren't you supposed to stick to the Mibu wolves, huh?" He promptly sank into a battoujutsu stance. "You're gonna pay for the five men you took down yesterday."  
  
The wolf was rather taken aback, mostly by the un-rurouni-like acidic words and Battousai's eagerness to resume their last battle. And when on earth did he take down five men?  
  
He decided that Battousai had lost it for good.  
  
Saitou unsheathed his own sword and sank into a Gatotsu stance. "So you've chosen hitokiri then. Nice choice. Strange time to do so, though." Battousai didn't revert back to the hitokiri even when he fought Shishio Makoto. Strange timing, really, should he go Battousai when nothing out of ordinary had happened.  
  
The two men stood, transfixed in their stances on the very street of Kyoto.  
  
Then without warning, both charged forward quickly, swords meeting each other like two strokes of lightening. Face inches from each other, Saitou and Battousai glared mercilessly at each other. Saitou's eyes widened as he spotted the mark on his opponent's left cheek – a single scar, not a cross one. He remembered a time when he had only a single scar, but it was fourteen years ago, when Battousai was still a feared assassin. What the hell...  
  
Battousai leaped backwards, then launched into the air for the next attack.  
  
"Ryu Tsui Sen!"  
  
"Baka...I've seen this attack before." Saitou said, flipping his blade for a counter-air attack.  
  
If Battousai was surprised about this, he didn't show it on his face. Composedly he twisted sideward, changing the move into a horizontal swipe instead.  
  
Saitou snickered. The reaction was as he had assumed. "You're done for, Battousai." He abruptly drew back his sword, bringing it out again in an elegant curve.  
  
"Zeroshiki!"  
  
Battousai's yellowish orbs widened in disbelieve as the blade shot swiftly towards his chest.  
  
"Saitou, Stop! What the hell are you..." Saitou saw a blur of purple shoot between him and Battousai, accompanied by a flash of steel. It was far too late to stop his attack now. Horrified, the Mibu wolf felt his blade bit against another. But the impact of Zeroshiki was disastrous. The other man was thrown backwards like a bullet, while a large gash on his chest blossomed with blood.  
  
Battousai caught the man before he fell to the ground. "Ken-Kenshin!?" he exclaimed quite unnaturally, though it could be explained away with the fact that he was, in fact, stunned.  
  
Saitou stared down at the man bleeding profusely, held upright by whom he had formerly assumed to be Battousai. "Bat-Battousai!?"  
  
Kenshin locked his violet gaze on him. "Saitou...wh-what the hell were you...were you trying to do...?" he rasped through laboured breath. Battousai had a roll of bandage out of his sleeve and was trying to attend to Kenshin's injury.  
  
Saitou looked from the youngster with the topknot to the injured one with a ponytail. God...they were truly identical, from the unique red hair to the pale, pointed face. Only the uninjured one seemed a little younger, his eyes slightly bigger in proportion to his face.  
  
"Leave him be, you'll just make him worse." Saitou knelt beside Kenshin, trying to pry Battousai's hand off his wound. He glanced at Battousai with the corner of his eye, and saw the show of frantic in his eyes, now a warm purple matching those of the man in his grasp.  
  
"Call them over, and say Fujita Goro would like to see them URGENT." The former Shisengumi instructed Battousai, spotting two policemen patrolling two streets ahead.  
  
Battousai was gone in god-like speed.

* * *

Saitou stared after him for a few moments.  
  
"You have a lot of explaining to do, Battousai." He settled the rurouni on the ground, sounding serious.  
  
"He's my brother, Himura Kentai." Kenshin closed his eyes, trying to avoid eye-contact with the extremely sensitive Shisengumi captain. His lying skill was less than admirable, but he had to try anyway, "next time, ask before you attack, Saitou."  
  
"He definitely looks more Battousai than you do. As all I know, the real Battousai has run into the middle of an attack like a poor fool." Saitou gritted his teeth. He had a faint feeling Battousai wasn't telling the truth. Or the whole of the truth.  
  
"There won't be much left of my brother if sessha doesn't." Kenshin said sharply, pressing a hand to stop the continuous blood flow.  
  
The Mibu Wolf scowled, irritated by the whole absurd situation. Was his ability in reading ken-ki really that bad? A ki between two people – even brothers and twins, is very different from each other. So why had he mistaken the person so easily?  
  
Because you have always known the aura. The aura of Battousai, the deadly aura of death and blood. Fourteen years haven't dulled your senses. And those amber eyes of a demon...a voice whispered in his ears. He shut that voice away. It wasn't possible. Unless...  
  
"Hey, really. Are you Battousai or not?" Saitou flinched at his own stupid question.  
  
"Maybe not, sessha's not sure." Kenshin was apparently amused.  
  
"Shut up Battousai. Next time you drag the kid out, make sure he doesn't wear an Ishin uniform. And tell him not to dye his eyes yellow. With the sword style and the clothing and those eyes, it's hard not to think him as you. "  
  
He put out the cigarette on the floor, adding as an afterthought, "I must admit he's quite good. You taught him the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu?"  
  
Kenshin's mind spun for an answer. "Er...no, my shishou did." He smiled as he watched Saitou turned away, suddenly humiliated by what he'd just done. That boy was somewhere half his age and he was using his secret technique on him. It wasn't a pleasant thing for anyone to see, let alone his lifelong rival. And let alone the victim was the lifelong rival's younger brother.  
  
The rurouni was almost glad that Saitou didn't plague him with more questions. One or two more questions, and he'd surely be damned speechless. Lucky he didn't say anything about the Ishin uniform, either. It's deadly hard to explain why his brother had laid his hands on such specific clothing, and chose to wear it out on this particular day.  
  
Saitou turned his back on him, watching Battousai babbling with his two inferiors in the distance. He stared bemusedly at his navy blue uniform, thinking quietly. This Himura Kentai was sort of creepy, he must admit. The lanky policeman knew precisely that Battousai wasn't telling the truth. Heck, he'd just check upon this boy himself.  
  
Battousai was more than frustrated. He'd never thought that explaining matters was that difficult, but it turned out that the two nutcase standing in front of him was having much trouble in comprehending what he'd just said. It suddenly struck him how sorely uncommunicative he was.  
  
Well, what d'you expect anyway? Never thought that being a hitokiri would need something such as communication. The most effective way of communication was through his sword, no doubt about that.  
  
He bit down the thought of threatening the two idiots with his sword. Anger welled up inside him. Don't they know someone's life was at risk because of their own stupidity? The hitokiri knew the blow had hit Kenshin hard. His older self wouldn't die, he knew; but it wasn't pleasant at all with him lying like that on the street, all the while dripping blood.  
  
Hey, since when had he begun caring for himself? He'd never thought he care about lives anymore.  
  
He shoved the sarcastic thought away, opening his mouth to speak again.  
  
"Can't you see, a man's wounded over there, and Fujita Goro asked you both to go to him."  
  
The two patrolling officers watched fearfully as the teenager made his speech, his young face betraying no emotion as he went on. There were a pair of swords tied to his obi, but the boy didn't seem to be aware of that.  
  
"Fujita-san will call on us if he wanted us." One replied cautiously, thinking that it was some trap that the young swordsman was luring them into. This guy is nuts, he thought. "And by the way, sir, you'll have to follow us to the police station, if you please."  
  
"For what?" Battousai was having trouble containing his anger. His eyes glinted an eerie lavender and a golden light zipped through them.  
  
This unnerved the policemen more. They took a step back in unison, pathetically out of wits. Their intention of saying "for carrying illegal swords around" was temporarily forgotten.  
  
Battousai couldn't take this anymore. Grabbing each of them by their collars, he dragged the bewildered policemen across the street.  
  
Kenshin's violet orbs widened alarmingly as he saw Battousai approaching him with his superhuman speed, two men dangling off his hands as if mere packages. "Ba...Kentai, don't do that! It's no Bakumatsu here!" he immediately regretted those words after they left his mouth.  
  
Saitou's brows jumped a bit as he registered the former hitokiri's word. Battousai skidded to a halt in front of him, apparently unconcerned. "Only way they'll follow me, that is. They're a pair of brainless idiots, too." He said gruffly.  
  
Choosing to ignore the crude insult to his inferiors, Saitou approached the two men, who were lying face down on the floor. "No time for arguments. Send me a carriage." The policemen cringed at his threatening amber eyes, then ran off in the opposite direction. Life had been bizarre enough without an impassively violent flame-haired boy and a gut-wrenchingly terrifying superior.  
  
Battousai noted the dark puddle of blood seeping under the rurouni. He gently placed a hand on his forehead, disturbed that it was covered in sweat.  
  
"You all right, niichan?"  
  
Kenshin smiled weakly, both at his tenderness and at the word "niichan". He's really taken me as his brother now; he thought, it's glad to know that the rurouni soul still lived deep inside him. The pain was threatening to engulf him in darkness, but looking through Battousai's cold mask into his inner childish concern he decided he would hold on, lest the boy could be utterly confused.  
  
"Aa...sessha is fine, de gozaru yo." He wasn't pleased to find bitter remorse in his younger counterpart's eyes. The hitokiri knew he was merely bluffing; he was as much Kenshin as the rurouni was. Sighing inwardly, the rurouni beckoned him to lean closer.  
  
"There is nothing wrong for your wanting to fight him," he whispered, each phrase punctuated by his shallow breath, "you know him as the Captain of the Third Shisengumi Troop and instincts told you to cut him down, he was a threat to peace. Do not blame yourself for that. Though you should have noticed he's now a cop and nothing more." He smirked the smallest of smirks, then resumed his talking.  
  
"I don't know how you could get back, but as all I know you could have stuck here forever. Remember that you're also me, that I'll help you to suit to this world. That's a promise. Yes, Kenshin?" he looked up hopefully at the younger hitokiri. His words had helped. Battousai was looking less miserable, less confused that he'd ended up in a wrong world and the only person that could help him through was seriously harmed – because of him. Yes, he was nothing less than overjoyed to leave the Bakumatsu; but the real meaning of having to adapt to a new world dawned on him hard – Saitou had somehow wrecked his balance of mind without knowing.  
  
"Don't talk like that, you aren't dying." Battousai glimpsed over at Saitou, who seemingly was paying no attention to their conversation whatsoever. Battousai knew better than that; Saitou was probably hanging on to their every word. It was useless anyway. Both the rurouni and hitokiri were fully aware of his presence, making sure he couldn't hear a single word.  
  
"Carriage's here." Battousai told Kenshin reassuringly as an awkward silence filled the street. With a nod from Saitou, he carried Kenshin over and laid him inside the carriage.

* * *

"Thank you, sensei," Kenshin grinned his rurouni grin as the doctor finished bandaging his chest, now cleaned and stitched neatly. It was clear the wound would pose no immediate danger to Kenshin.  
  
"Aa...no thanks, Himura-san. You'd better be careful with that wound, too. Make sure you don't get up till you're perfectly well." The doctor glanced skeptically at the young samurai, as though daring him to say "no". Kenshin flinched internally. He was just thinking about subtracting one day or two off the week the sensei had ordered him in bed.  
  
Seeing Kenshin's comical expression, the sensei laughed. "Samurai have a unfortunate habit of running around too soon after they're injured." He tilted his head upwards, "that's what I've learnt from the Bakumatsu."  
  
"True." Battousai muttered behind him, receiving a searching gaze from Saitou. He quickly looked away.  
  
"I expect you to be up and about in two or three days, Battousai," Saitou said in a matter-of-fact tone. Battousai had to rein himself from responding to that name. "In the meanwhile, I have some business to discuss with you." He tried to sound natural, but both Himuras had spotted the tightness of his lips, and with a look from each other, both burst out laughing. They both knew the former Shisengumi had a favour to ask, and the way he presented it was downright amusing.  
  
"What's so funny?" Saitou demanded calmly, though he truly wanted to strangle the pair of them for humiliating him.  
  
"Nothing de gozaru." Kenshin said hastily. Laughing was obviously painful for him.  
  
Battousai was not so kind. "When you chased me around in those dark alleys, you won't think you'll be asking me for a favour do you...?" With a dangerous warning glare from his older self, Battousai stopped in mid-sentence.  
  
"No one's asking your favour, Kentai-san." Saitou said pointedly, "as for chasing you around in dark alleys..." he closed his eyes briefly, recalling the chaotic days when he'd been hunting for Battousai's blood almost every night, "I do remember chasing a certain redheaded murderer called Battousai around." He scanned through the face of the younger Himura, and was disappointed that he had once again slipped the cold mask onto his face.  
  
There was certain tenseness in the air that no one dared to break. I'll save this for later, Saitou thought.  
  
"As I was saying, I...okay, I need your help Battousai." He admitted tightly, though utterly pissed off by that.  
  
Kenshin refrained himself from laughing this time. "What do you want?"  
  
"There are over twenty murders, no...assassinations in these past month, and the victims are mostly minor Meiji officers. The government is trying to hush it all up, but...well, the people are bound to know it some day." Saitou said, calmly puffing on his cigarette.  
  
"Assassinations?" Kenshin demanded softly.  
  
"Yes, assassinations. And what's most interesting is..." the wolf continued, narrowing his eyes, "the murderers claimed to be finishing the noble work of Hitokiri Battousai – delivering 'Heavenly Justice' to certain corrupted officials. They called themselves vanguards of justice."  
  
"What? They are abusing my name." Kenshin replied, turning earnest at the discussion of businesses. Battousai stayed mercifully quiet, much to the relief of his older counterpart.  
  
"They act under your name," said Saitou, "now those government officials are thinking you came back for revenge with a horde of those guys."  
  
"That's funny," said Kenshin darkly, "first they send me out to flatten Shishio, then after I do so they blacklist me as a danger to their lives."  
  
"We both know these politicians are senseless fools who think about nothing except for their own petty lives." Saitou agreed, tipping his cigarette on a dish thoughtfully, "but we the police don't think so. You're a nutcase, but certainly not nutty enough to run around town chopping up those pig-headed politicians. You'll just destroy the Meiji era you've worked hard to build up."  
  
Kenshin gave him a Battousai glare, which only amused the former Shisengumi captain even more. Ignoring the clear cut insult, the former hitokiri returned neutrally, "So, what do you want from me then?"  
  
Saitou gave a disdainful snort. "Know what, the Meiji government wants you to negotiate with them. Say, they must be some former Ishin members hero- worshipping you, so if you have a cheerful chat with them, they'll lay back and stop assassinating people. Not my idea though."  
  
Kenshin groaned while Battousai mirrored Saitou's move and snorted. "Is the government that naïve? Well, I don't recall anyone who'd hero-worship me. When I was a hitokiri my own comrades used to dodge me in the corridors. Cursing me and stuff."  
  
Battousai nodded in agreement. And stopped himself in the middle of a half- nod. It was only a couple of hours ago when the patriots had been dodging him in the corridor. Conversations would stop as he entered a room. Whenever he locked eyes with someone – allies included – all he could sense was fear. Hatred. A mixture of both.  
  
That was news for Saitou. "Oh? I thought they used to love you. You have cut down more men than all of them added together."  
  
Kenshin laughed humorlessly. "You should know, Saitou. They used to think...well, they used to think I was somewhat...unstable."  
  
"Well, you are." Saitou said flatly.  
  
Kenshin threw his hands into the air with disgust.  
  
"Can't you ever talk business without insulting someone?"  
  
"Maa...maa...the infamous Battousai can't take a joke can he?" the Mibu wolf waved his words away casually, satisfied with his sudden outburst. Maybe the former hitokiri had a thread of temper in him after all. He cleared his throat once. "Back to business. So, they want you to negotiate with some of those troublemakers. But then..."his eyes gleamed, "you can just as well kick their ass as far as the government is concerned."  
  
"I see..." said Kenshin slowly as he digested the new information, "in other words they don't really want me to negotiate. They actually want me to slice them all up...without involving the government officials themselves, right?"  
  
Saitou's quirked a brow. "That's about right."  
  
Battousai felt his temper brewing. "And this is the so-called peaceful era that I...my brother created? Assassinations, massacres, things like that, again and again and again. What make this era different from the Bakumatsu huh? They..."  
  
"Kentai." Kenshin pleaded, "please."  
  
Battousai saw the alarmed glow in his older counterpart's face and grunted. "This is just not fair." No, he thought, I will not let my older self kill again. If anyone should have blood on his hands then let it be me.  
  
His musings were cut short by a shrewd comment by Saitou.  
  
"You fought in the Bakumatsu with Battousai didn't you?"  
  
Battousai winced inwardly. The man was certainly too sensitive to be fooled.  
  
"Well...I did." He admitted. I fought by the name of Battousai, he added silently in his head.  
  
Saitou's lips twitched up into a wolfish grin as he sensed the younger Himura's reluctance to accept that.  
  
"That sort of explains why Battousai seemed to be everywhere at once in the Bakumatsu, said the wolf, nodding absently. "Actually there were two Battousai running around all the while."  
  
Uh-oh. Kenshin and Battousai realized that Saitou had got it the wrong way.  
  
"It's not like that," protested Battousai, slightly baffled. "I'm fifteen this year. I couldn't have fought in the Revolution when I was five!"  
  
"Fifteen, ne? Your brother here is only a couple of years younger than me and he's looking exactly like he was when I fought him in the battle of Toba-Fushimi. I won't be really surprised if your real age is over twenty,"  
  
Battousai was speechless as Kenshin sweatdropped. The way Saitou could put two and two together was sorta...hard to describe. But then it'll make it easier for Battousai to hang around without Saitou suspecting him as anyone else.  
  
Kenshin gave an oh-well-he's-nuts-no-point-arguing-with-the-guy sigh and leaned back against the hard pillow. It was long since they'd left the mountain. It was deadpan sure he couldn't climb it in his state; someone's got to tell shishou lest he'll think we've fallen into a ditch, he thought.  
  
"So," said Saitou, snapping back into business again, "The decision's yours to be made. Though I don't really think negotiation will help."  
  
Kenshin tapped his fingers on the blanket. "I'll try negotiating first, if possible. Fighting can wait."  
  
"I'm going with you," Battousai offered.  
  
"Oh no you don't. You can't kill in the Meiji Era, so you can just snap out of your killing cycle. Or you may get a sakabatou or something before you go." He hastily added as Battousai's eyes sparkled with anger.  
  
"As you wish." The words were hissed out. Battousai wasn't enthusiastic to drop his katana or his wakizashi.  
  
"Cool it kid." Saitou told the half-snarling hitokiri placidly, "you can kill, no problem. The government granted us the permission to kill in this issue."  
  
"SAITOU!"  
  
"Okay, you two sort this out. I am going out now. Talk about it later." The ex-Shisengumi gave a shrug before disappearing in the doorway.  
  
Kenshin and Battousai regarded each other with raised brows.  
  
"You're not killing. This is only a minor matter."  
  
"At least lemme go with you. I won't hurt them. I promise."  
  
"...remember, you promised."  
  
"I did."  
  
Satisfied with the answer, Kenshin snapped his eyelids shut and lowered  
himself into the futon. "Kenshin?"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"You seemed more like yourself today. I mean, you didn't go berserk about the assassination stuff. And guess what," Kenshin opened an eye, "you're more like Shinta today."  
  
Shinta. A name of innocent memories.  
  
Battousai smiled wryly. He took something out from inside his gi.  
  
"Actually, I am very happy today. I woke up in the morning thinking that I'm doomed to this job. But it never came."  
  
Kenshin looked at the object. It was a black envelope. He knew exactly what it meant. "Who do you have to kill this time?"  
  
Battousai looked down on the wooden tiles of the floor furiously. "Katsura- san...he personally demanded me to kill him. Hiroshiya...just because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time..."  
  
Kenshin nodded sadly at the mention of his friend. "You know, I killed him."  
  
"You WHAT?''  
  
"I have no choice. You of all people should know...if Katsura-san labeled a person traitor, you're to kill him and not to make a damn about it."  
  
Battousai sank sullenly along the wall. "Right. A hitokiri shouldn't give a damn about anything...anything at all." He fell silent for what seemed an eternity. Then his anger returned threefold. "I'm NOT going back to the Bakumatsu. No, no and not EVER!"  
  
"Quiet! Saitou might still be around."  
  
And outside the door Saitou Hajime frowned slightly at the absurd conversation.

* * *

Hiko Seijiro glared down at his sake. He could see his worried dark eyes reflected in it. He gave the drink a little shake. His image in the cup wavered as he did so.  
  
The normally gruff swordsmaster let his gaze drift to the horizon, now glowing a faint shade of crimson as dusk claimed its arrival. "Damned baka deishi...where have the two of them gone to...it's nearly night and they still haven't returned." He knew that both deishi of his were hopeless trouble magnets, especially the younger one. But they were sure safe with each other around. Anyone who'd want to pick a fight on the pair on them would have been losing his mind.  
  
He sighed half-exasperatedly. Though he might not want to admit it, the man had spent half his life thinking about the well being of his all-too- idealistic baka deishi. Now that things were finally settled for Kenshin, he found himself drowned in nostalgia and old memories.  
  
He wasn't young anymore.  
  
"He was a pain in the neck, yes; but I'm proud of him and all that matters...he is the son I never had." He shifted his mantle.  
  
"That idiot, I thought he would inherit the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu the day I took him in. And now...rebellious little brat. "

* * *

"Hiko-san, here's your sake."  
  
"Thank you, Kaiyo-dono. Are you closing the shop now?"  
  
"Hai."  
  
"...you never close the shop that early before."  
  
"Ah, Hiko-san. Time has changed. It's dangerous at night. Assassins, samurai, ninjas, Ishinshishi, Shisengumi...they roam the streets after nightfall. You don't want to run into Hitokiri Battousai when you go home at night!" Kaiyo laughed nervously.  
  
Hiko sighed. His baka deishi must be one of those roaming the streets at night.  
  
"Hitokiri Battousai?" he asked casually, not really paying attention.  
  
"Yes Sir, Hitokiri Battousai is the most feared assassin in Kyoto. He works for the Ishin, if I'm not mistaken. They say he has amber eyes like a demon and flaming red hair. Someone says that he's pretty young, though." Said Kaiyo, a trifle surprised that he hadn't heard the news.  
  
That snapped Hiko out of his thoughts. "WHAT?"  
  
Kaiyo took a step back, frightened at the sudden reaction. Hiko inhaled deeply, readjusting his grip on the jar of sake.  
  
"I'm sorry, Kaiyo-dono...I think I'd better be going."  
  
"Oh," Kaiyo replied, still shocked, "er...Hiko-san?" Hiko turned back patiently.  
  
"Why isn't Kenshin coming today?" she asked, blushing a bit.  
  
Oh shit. He forgot the girl had a crush on his baka deishi.  
  
"He er...I sent him to get some wood, yeah." Hiko lied almost fluently. "You aren't in a hurry to see him, ne?"  
  
"No!" Kaiyo blushed even redder, then ran off back into the shop.  
  
"Hitokiri Battousai...damned baka deishi, I'll kill you if I ever see you again."

* * *

Of course at the end he hadn't managed to really kill his baka deishi. He was angry, yes; but when he came back he almost felt relieved. That he hadn't died being a hitokiri. That he was still living though his soul was half-dead. He shook his head. Maybe he's really getting old now, wasting his time thinking about faded days.  
  
The sun gave its last strand of red over the ground. In the distance a boy calmly approached Hiko, silhouetted against the fading light.  
  
"Baka, what took you so long?" Hiko shot at the youngster. Battousai frowned.  
  
"Kenshin's hurt. He told me to bring the news here...lest you'll think we've fallen down a ditch." Battousai said directly, with a smile that did not touch his eyes.  
  
"Hurt? How come. I thought I only told the two of you to take a walk, not to engage into a fight. And..."  
  
"My fault really. I ran into an old Shisengumi Captain, and we dueled. Seems that he's much better than he was ten years ago. Kenshin took his most fierce attack for me ..."  
  
"I see. You haven't got his memory after all." Hiko pensively looked into his cup again. "Come over, Kenshin."  
  
Wondering what he might want, Battousai sat beside him with the hitokiri's alertness. "Yes, shishou?"  
  
Hiko stared straight into his eyes. Strangely for him, Battousai's eyes were much relatively easier to penetrate into. He too hid his emotions well; but the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu enabled Hiko to read any opponent's thoughts, including the hitokiri boy in front of him. With one exception...the baka deishi he currently had, down there in the town of Kyoto. Ten years of wandering had trained Kenshin to hide any emotions away into the deep violet that made up his eyes.  
  
"Remember I told you...for you it's only a year ago...that someday you'll taste sake? That by that time we'll drink it together? The time has come." He reached into his mantle and produced another cup. "Drink with me, baka deishi."  
  
Battousai took the cup, eyes shining with sudden emotion. "Drink it...together...?"  
  
Hiko shook his head slightly, as if reading his thoughts. "One year might not be enough, but nineteen years is enough for one to forgive and forget. You're an idiot from the beginning, as I should have known."  
  
Battousai smiled bitterly. "I guess you're right, shishou. I made it rain blood. But nothing has changed...nothing indeed, 'cept for my soul.'' He stared hard at the tiny stream of sake being poured into his cup. "I've tried it. It tastes bitter."  
  
Hiko was surprised at the somehow bold confession of his baka deishi. While the rurouni wouldn't have breathed a word about his sufferings and problems the hitokiri seemed more open to share them.  
  
He's a child, after all.  
  
"You planning to stay here forever?"  
  
"Probably; if Kenshin would allow me. It might be better to be a rurouni like him."  
  
"Took you long enough to figure that out, baka."  
  
Battousai felt the cool liquid sliding down his throat. "But in that way...I am still luckier than Kenshin. He is sorrowed. I can feel it." He cocked his head. "We're technically the same person."  
  
"Nothing you can do 'bout that. He will continue to bear this memory throughout his life. The only thing I can do...is to distract him from it."  
  
"But...why? Why does he seem so sad? What will happen to me later on?" Battousai tucked a strand of his red hair behind his ear.  
  
"You don't have to know that. From now on, live a life of your own. Got me?"  
  
"Hai, shishou."  
  
Both master and student remained silent, absorbed in their own thoughts; until an assortment of voices came piercing through the night air.  
  
"Oi, Kenshin? Hiko-san?"  
  
"You don't need to shout busu, they're not deaf – ''  
  
"Pay some respect to your shishou, you ungrateful little brat!"  
  
''Hey Jou-chan, aren't you going to drag Kenshin out here or what? So stop fighting and hurry up." Came Sagara Sanosuke's deep, amused voice.  
  
Battousai blinked in confusion while Hiko narrowed his eyes in annoyance.  
  
"It's those crazy friends of yours coming. You'd better get outta here before they see you baka deishi."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Just get moving."  
  
It was just a moment after Battousai had perched himself on a particularly thick tree branch that the trio appeared out of the forest.  
  
What're you lot doing here." Hiko demanded coolly.  
  
Arrogant bastard as always, thought the ex-fighter-for-hire as he threw a jar of sake right into his lap.

"Present." Sano grunted. "Where's Kenshin?"  
  
"Sent him down Kyoto." Hiko said smoothly without a single 'thank you'. That was half true.  
  
"Why, Hiko-san?" Kaoru demanded, apparently concerned that her rurouni would run off doing something dangerous on his own. Again.  
  
"Not your business, Kamiya-dono." Hiko replied nonchalantly. "You can't leave him alone for a single moment can you?"  
  
Kaoru considered seriously of smacking him with her bokken but thought better of it. She knew she wouldn't enjoy being Ryu-Tsui-Sen-ed back to Tokyo.  
  
"He isn't up to anything is he?" she narrowed her ocean blue eyes at the swordsman, who simply ignored her, staring off into space.  
  
"That idiot had better not be dumping me behind again, or I'll really Futae no Kiwami him to China." Sano piped up, punching a nearby tree to emphasize his point.  
  
Battousai watched with interest as the three youngsters passed right under him. So they're my future friends, he mused. The girl with the indigo ribbon was real cute. Maybe she'll be my girlfriend. And that boy with spiky hair looks – and acts – completely like a juvenile delinquent. Well, maybe not juvenile anymore...  
  
Crash! Battousai barely had time to register the source of the disaster as the tree he perched on sudden went down with the speed of a charging bull. Instinctively he shot out of the tree, expecting a full attack.  
  
All he got was three person gaping openmouthed at his sudden entrance.


	2. Commotion of all sorts

**Past and Future By Hitokiri-san )  
  
I am happy to announce that RK will mine in less than a week as I'm gonna marry Nobuhiro Watsuki-sama this afternoon. Any objection? No? Let's return to the story then. You guys are such a fuss. (Authoress' mother felt her on the forehead)  
  
Mom: You sure you're alright, dear?  
  
Authoress: I'm feeling quite fine, de gozaru **

**Mom:....  
  
Ch2 Commotion of all sorts**  
  
Shinmatte! Battousai froze as this single word managed to drift across his dumb mind. His immediate action was to lay his hand across his scarred left cheek.  
  
"Oh, hi." He eyed the shocked group, his mind in complete chaos. Damn, I don't even know their names. What on earth am I supposed to do now? Pretend to be the rurouni, or act as his little brother? Oh hell.  
  
"Kenshin? S'that you?" Yahiko asked uncertainly, not daring to approach this strange figure that was supposed to be Kenshin. He tugged at Sano's sleeve, clearly not believing what he was seeing.  
  
"You told us he's not here!" the streetfighter accused, abruptly turning to Hiko for an answer.  
  
"Don't you speak to me with such an attitude, Sagara." Hiko returned placidly, mentally cursing his baka deishi's untimely appearance. Battousai was looking at him almost pleadingly; He was bound to think up something quick.  
  
"You haven't answered my question yet. Kenshin!" The spiky-haired man directed a furious glare at the hitokiri, "What the hell's happening to you!"  
  
"I....erm.....well....." Battousai stammered, taken aback by the rude question. He unconsciously moved to Hiko's side, hoping against hope that his shishou would magically come up with some likely story.  
  
"Kenshin!" Kaoru prodded. Something was not quite right about him, she mused. Not just the hairstyle or the daishou attached to his side. There was something.....something wrong about him that the tanuki girl could not quite decipher.  
  
"He's not Kenshin." Hiko said simply, buying himself time to make up the story properly. The others just gaped in confusion.  
  
That's great, Battousai thought idly as he removed the hand from his face. "Ohayou, I'm Himura Kentai, Kenshin's younger brother. Surely my brother has told you about me?  
  
The three shook their heads in unison, eyes big as saucers. Hiko decided to play along. "Here's my other baka deishi. What's the matter? Haven't seen a man before?" he looked around from the raven-haired girl to the spiky- haired kid, his feigned annoyance intimidating the three youngsters.  
  
Sano glowered at him before turning to Battousai. "You, Kenshin's brother?" with a nod from the latter, he said, "how much more is Kenshin hiding from us, really? I'm gonna throttle him when he comes back." Sagara declared as he approached the redhead with what he hoped to be a friendly way. Battousai smiled mechanically. Everything's working out just fine, he decided. He mentally congratulated both his shishou and himself for putting up such a fine show.  
  
It wasn't until Kaoru's comment rang through the air that his smile froze completely.  
  
"I don't suppose the two of you are ready to tell the truth, are you?

* * *

That ki.  
  
He might be injured, but his sense as a swordsman had not dulled at all. After all, the ability of reading ki was one of the most deadly weapons that the Hitokiri Battousai possessed, apart from his Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu.  
  
He gingerly pulled himself upright, gathering his reddish hair back into a ponytail. Hell, he wouldn't want the man nearby to see the legendary Hitokiri Battousai looking so dishevelled, hair pouring over his face as he prepared for his sleep.  
  
And what in the name of God was he doing here.  
  
"What do you want Saitou."  
  
Saitou waited patiently outside the shouji, giving Kenshin the time he needed to prepare for the Miburo's entrance. "I see you still haven't learnt your manners yet, Battousai."  
  
"Straight to the point. What d'you want?"  
  
Saitou produced a dark grin. "No point teaching you manners isn't it." His face turned serious. " I'll get to the point. What on earth is that Himura Kentai? Don't give me that 'he's my younger brother' stuff."  
  
Kenshin jumped a bit. "You've come for this?"  
  
"Yes." Was the answer. Kenshin caught a brief glimpse of Saitou's slightly perplexed face as he lighted his cigarette, a faint glow illuminating his features.  
  
Himura cocked his head and stared, thinking if the man beside him was worth the truth.  
  
He decided that he was.  
  
Saitou listened intently as the former Ishinshishi relived the story, seemingly deep in thoughts. Kenshin, in the meanwhile, knew the Mibu Wolf would keep the secret for him. At least he wouldn't have to explain anything anymore after this.  
  
"That's interesting," was Saitou's only comment for the whole chaotic - not to mention confusing - situation. "We do need someone like him currently. You know, those people we're negotiating with.....I can't say they're good, but there's a whole swarm of them out there if what my informant said was correct. Anyway." he crossed his arms slowly, "we got into contact with the gang this afternoon. They told us if we wanted negotiation we'll have to go in alone. No police force nearby."  
  
"Fine by me."  
  
"So, bring the lad too. He might be of use there."  
  
".I don't really think so." said a partially disgruntled Kenshin. He had a distinct feeling that Saitou would gleefully love to have a "proper" Battousai back again.  
  
The Miburo's snort came as no surprise to the former hitokiri. " Still thinking about that non-killing joke of yours, eh? The Battousai out there (he gave a sharp nod towards the door) might not like that."  
  
"I'm fully aware of that," said Kenshin stiffly, "but I believe he's Himura Kenshin and that is out of your business, Saitou Hajime."  
  
Saitou twitched his mouth into what resembled a leer. "Hope you have control over the kid, then. Anyway, the meeting will be held four days later. Prepare yourself for that." He turned on his heels and left the room, Kenshin fretting behind him.  
  
"Turn right, through the third alley across, then north-east and that's it." Battousai mused silently, stalking down Kyoto in a leisurely pace. He watched bemusedly as a woman dragged her child across the street, eyeing him with certain wariness. Battousai smiled warmly at her, receiving an unsure smile back in return.  
  
It's a miracle that I wormed out of trouble, he thought. Closing his eyes, the notorious manslayer recalled the practically scary moment yesterday when Kaoru gave her lethal comment. He could feel his heart stop abruptly, and looking sideways he fancied he saw his forever-arrogant master paling in shock behind that exaggeratedly protruded red collar of his mantle.  
  
How could she know?  
  
Both Hiten masters spent about half the century rooted to the spot, staring at the tanuki girl as if they'd never seen her before. She returned the stare with anticipation shining in her sapphire eyes.  
  
" C'mon now....tell me the truth as to where Kenshin is! I didn't come all the way from Tokyo to Kyoto to see his brother!"  
  
Both Sano and Yahiko agreed it was worth coming from Tokyo to Kyoto just to see the invincibly cool Hiko Seijiro face-vault.  
  
Battousai sighed. He himself had fallen over when the tanuki had come up with that ridiculous statement; along with an equally ridiculous "oro" that Battousai presume he had picked up from the rurouni. He'd been picking up a lot from the rurouni, ne?  
  
"Strolling the town are you Battousai?" Battousai jumped a bit as the Shisengumi Captain's voice rang from behind him. The woman stifled a gasp and, still dragging her child along, scuttled back into her house.  
  
Dammit, I was so carried away., the hitokiri thought, hand flying automatically towards the hilt of his sword.  
  
"What do you want Saitou?"  
  
Saitou leaned on a nearby post, clearly absorbed in some private joke while staring down at the redhead.  
  
Exactly the same reaction as his older self, one part of the Mibu wolf's brain chirped delightfully. He quickly squelched the thought. I'm here for business, he quickly reminded himself. And I have all the time in the world if I ever want to taunt the stupid rurouni.  
  
He promptly recited the important details of the negotiating event to the youngster, who regarded the former Shisengumi nervously with glazed amber- flecked eyes throughout the chat. Saitou could tell the boy was still uncomfortable with his new position. He could refer to that.....it must be really absurd to have your worst enemy swayed to your side in one day's time - the Miburo let a small smile grace his lips as a brief vision of the Battousai in the green haori of the Shisengumi crossed his mind.  
  
This unnerved the Battousai even more, though on the exterior the hitokiri's face remained a blank. When the Mibu wolf ended his short speech, he said neutrally, " Well, what're you telling this to me for? You won't need me anyway. I got banned by my brother." Not having noticed Saitou eavesdropping the previous night, he assumed that he was still Himura Kentai in Saitou's eyes.  
  
"Cut it off, I know he'd let you go....not without a term or two, of course. Sure you want to see some blood on your blade, ne?" Saitou met his amber gaze with his own yellowish one.  
  
Battousai grunted in indignation, ignoring the older man as he continued on his way.  
  
"I don't enjoy killing."  
  
Saitou produced a lighter from his pocket, not in the least disturbed that the hitokiri boy had left without an answer to his hidden request.  
  
"Maybe he isn't as different as the idiot rurouni as I used to believe."

* * *

A gentle, almost shy knock on his shouji.  
  
He knew who it was, of course. He could sense the visitor even before he came into sight.  
  
"Please come in."  
  
The young boy trotted in, positively smirking as he knelt beside Kenshin's futon.  
  
"You feeling better?"  
  
"Aa. It is healing well, de gozaru."  
  
"Where'd you learn that strange manners from, anyway?" The younger Kenshin inquired, not really interested in getting the answer.  
  
"Sessha....sort of picked it up being a rurouni," Kenshin said evasively, stopping the following "de gozaru yo" just in time. "Nothing much really."  
  
Battousai arched a brow at this, not thoroughly convinced but decided to let it pass.  
  
"I met Saitou Hajime on my way here," the infamous hitokiri said, "he's persuading me to help sort out his problem, no doubt. Well, in truth, he's quite...quite..."  
  
"Unnerving? Scary? Annoying?" the rurouni suggested helpfully, but Battousai shook his head at each.  
  
"I mean, you don't often see Shisengumi Captains turn into Meiji policemen..."he waved a hand vaguely, "..if you see what I mean."  
  
Kenshin clucked his tongue understandingly. "I don't really understand the guy, to say the truth. Aku Soku Zan." He muttered under his breath. Battousai swept his high ponytail - the only feature that could make out the hitokiri from the rurouni, apart from the scars - behind his shoulders self-consciously, then actually smiled the tiniest of smiles at the dumbstruck rurouni. Kenshin never thought himself capable of smiling. Well, he did smile a lot - but his smiles were usually contaminated with a trace of sadness, even a sense of unworthiness. The hitokiri was smiling in an innocent, childish way; Kenshin could tell he was extremely pleased at something.  
  
"What is it?" asked the ex-Battousai gently. He knew the boy would understand the question.  
  
"I'm happy." The boy declared, his smile widening.  
  
Kenshin blinked confusedly, not really sure what to do except waiting for the boy to elaborate his point. He didn't have to wait for long, however.  
  
"I like this world." Battousai said simply, doing a sort of jig dance beside the futon. Kenshin smiled amusedly. The great Hitokiri Battousai dancing like a child..  
  
Battousai stopped in mid-jig, scrutinizing his older self with his now violet orbs. " Hey snap out of that brooding. Can't you be happy just for once?" he said, a spark of annoyance in his voice.  
  
"Gomen nasai Kenshin," said the rurouni apologetically. He was currently thinking that maybe the younger boy's soul wasn't nearly as stained as his own. Maybe...just maybe.  
  
Maybe he could start all over again.  
  
He shook his head clear of thoughts as his brother-like figure shot him a playful scowl. "I've got to tell you something." Kenshin said as Battousai began stacking up some spare blankets and folded-up futons underneath his older counterpart, trying to get him propped up against them.  
  
"Aw, not so fast into business," Battousai replied detachedly, still deciding if he should place the blankets under the futons or vice versa.  
  
"Not really business," Kenshin assured him, "just...well, Saitou sorta found out about you the day before."  
  
Battousai literally jumped five feet towards heaven before he could find his voice. "He what?"  
  
"Found out the truth about you, " the rurouni continued smoothly.  
  
"And he'd buy that joke of a story?" the boy asked incredulously.  
  
"Obviously," the rurouni replied, a smile tugging at his lips at his temporary "niichan" 's frantic. "It's all right really, he won't go blabbing 'bout it, de gozaru."  
  
He received a smart smack as Battousai, who had been arranging futons behind his back, hit him upside the head with the saya of his katana. Kenshin winced as his left hand flew to his skull, briefly recalling the time when it was he who did that to his shishou when he had requested to leave the mountains.  
  
"Ouch! What was that for?"  
  
"I think you should drop that habit of 'de gozaru'-ing, that you should," Battousai snapped sulkily behind the rurouni.  
  
"That's not the point!" Kenshin snarled uncharacteristically, wondering how on earth had his "de gozaru"s offended the manslayer. Then it came to him. " I didn't tell Saitou who you are! He's just too sly to be fooled. And -'' he shrugged, "it's not that bad, you know. That wild wolf's okay except when he tried to piss you off."  
  
Battousai returned the katana to his obi ruefully. "He very nearly sent me to an early grave this spring, that crazy wolf. But I can't deny he's got guts...and style."  
  
Kenshin chuckled as he laid an elbow on the heap of futons and blankets. "So Shishou knows about you coming down here, doesn't he?"  
  
"Course he does. And...ah! I've just remembered, me too got something to tell you."  
  
Kenshin waited. Battousai fidgeted with the edge of his hakama, not sure how to put it in words.  
  
"Yesterday I met some of your friends up at shishou's hut. A girl with black-blue hair and pink ribbon, a lanky rooster head with a Chinese character on his back, and a spiky-haired boy with a shinai tied to his back. Any idea who they are?"  
  
" Kaoru-dono, Sano and Yahiko, of course." Kenshin smiled, wondering what kind of drama may unfold between his younger self and his riotous friends. Battousai nodded, then told him in full details the memorable commotion the day before.  
  
The wanderer nearly suffocated in tears of mirth leaking from his eyes at the mere thought of Hiko face-vaulting.  
  
Battousai patted himself on the head inwardly as he surveyed the merriment he'd created. His goal was achieved - he had sent his older self into peals of genuine laughter, not forced ones.  
  
He gave a start as Kenshin ceased his laughter suddenly. He had sensed it too. There were no fewer than twenty presences outside the main door of the little house Saitou had arranged for Kenshin as an unspoken apology.  
  
Battousai closed his grip on the saya of his daishou, glad that he hadn't disposed of it as the rurouni had suggested.  
  
Seeing that the rurouni was attempting to raise himself from the futon, Battousai pressed a hand onto his shoulder, forcing him down. "I'll go check it out. You be good and stay down."  
  
"But."  
  
"I'll be okay if you don't get in my way." Battousai said tersely.  
  
The wanderer tuned his gentle, lavender eyes on him.  
  
"Please.do not hurt them...spare their lives....I ask of you." he said incoherently, almost pleadingly.  
  
Battousai hesitated, his hitokiri sense shouting "baka" at the unreasonable request.  
  
_Kill them and be quick. You don't want the rurouni to get hurt do you? If you spare them, will they spare the rurouni? Certainly not. Don't be foolish, boy._  
  
"Oh, shut up," muttered the redheaded boy darkly. "Right, whatever you say." He said aloud to the rurouni, who looked utterly relieved as he followed the Ishin hitokiri's previous order and slumped back onto the pile of futons.  
  
Battousai slammed the shouji aside, hurtling towards the front gate. The people outside were good fighters, he just knew it. But what do they want - with him or with the rurouni?  
  
Something told him it had something to do with his weird arrival into this era.

* * *

They waited tensely outside the gate, silence going through the group as their eyes locked simultaneously on their leader, a lanky man with raven hair tied into a ponytail that trailed down to his waist. He looked rather sober.  
  
"I hope we aren't attracting too much attention," he mused. In the corner of his eyes a shadow slid silently onto the porch of the house. "He has come."  
  
Himura Battousai looked around him impassively. A part of his mind noted fearfully that it was a twenty on one fight. The rest of him didn't care; he just wanted to get them out of there, and quick.  
  
"What do you want?" asked Battousai coolly.  
  
The men dispersed so that their leader could stand alone to talk with the boy.  
  
"Himura Kenshin, aka Hitokiri Battousai, shadow hitokiri for the Ishinshishi. Do I got that right?"  
  
Battousai very nearly jumped out of his skin, not quite knowing whether to say a yes or a no. He decided upon a no. " Iie. That's my brother."  
  
There was some uneasy muttering going on within the group, but Battousai ignored it and so did the other man.  
  
The man shook his head slowly. "The Battousai don't have a brother. We're sure of that. That other person in the house....he must be your present self. You- " he directed a finger at the perturbed boy, "you don't belong here; you should be in the past."  
  
What the. "What does that matter to you?" Battousai sneered, his heart beating furiously fast against his throat. "I believe you have your own business to mind."  
  
Ungrateful little brat, the man cursed mentally. "Give that thing back. It's dangerous," he said in an urgent voice, hand outstretched.  
  
The redhead blinked. Is this a joke or what? "Give what back?"  
  
The man advanced on him impatiently. "You know what I mean. The time turner."  
  
"The what?"  
  
"Time turner!" the man practically bellowed, causing a few men nearby to scurry away like ants.  
  
"Just what the hell is a time turner? If you want it back, at least tell me how it looks like!" Battousai demanded, finding the situation stranger than he originally bargained for.  
  
"How should I know what it looks like? It could be anything!" the man said as if it was no plainer than one plus one. Battousai smirked.  
  
"Very convincing."  
  
"See here," the man said desperately, resisting the temptation to grab the boy's collar - a wise thing to do - and tried to reason with him. "You don't mess around with time! It's our mistake that the time turner got into your hands, but you've got to return it! You understand? I don't care you're Hitokiri Battousai or anything, just give me the time turner!"  
  
Battousai put up his hands for a "stop" signal. "I'm not trying to make life difficult for you, but what does the damned thing looks like? I'm trying to help you!"  
  
"Yeah, right." The leader said awkwardly, realizing the hitokiri was quite right - he was getting nowhere with his temper. "I will be grateful for your cooperation. We can bring you right home if we can find the cursed thing."  
  
Battousai felt a flutter in his stomach as though there were living butterflies inside it. He didn't want to go home, if it was what it was called; Battousai never considered that to be a home. If returning the time turner meant he was to return to the Bakumatsu, he sure as hell wasn't going to return it.  
  
"Er." he said, buying himself more time to think up an excuse properly.  
  
"Right," the raven-haired man pressed on eagerly, is there anything you were touching, or handling when you got transferred into this time zone? Anything could be the time turner, once the time turning ability got into it." he babbled on, and Battousai couldn't help but listened intently.  
  
Anything? The hitokiri wondered briefly what he had been doing when he got transferred into the Meiji era.  
  
The top. you were spinning the top. Battousai realized with horror. He put a hand on the side of his navy haori. He could feel the top in there, untouched since yesterday.  
  
He must have looked quite shocked because the twenty-one pairs of eyes were all looking at him expectantly.  
  
"Where is it? Where is the time turner?"  
  
The group of people kept staring, waiting for an answer. Battousai pretended to think, all the while wondering how he could get away with this. Just when all were getting impatient, a whistle rang shrilly in the distance. Everyone swiveled his head to the source of the nuisance.  
  
"Shinmatte, it's the police." The dark-haired leader muttered imperiously. Turning sharply to the wide-eyed hitokiri, he said quickly, "We'll be back. Just wait for us here and don't run around. My name's Zenei Makimoto." With that he signaled his men, who nodded respectfully.  
  
They were gone in a second. The youngster rubbed his eyes; the whole group had seemingly dissolved into thin air.  
  
"Himura-san! Himura-san! Are you all right?" the police officer panted, having sprinted past three streets to get here. Battousai smiled gratefully; the man had just saved him from a tight corner.  
  
"Daijoubu." He replied, smiling brightly.

* * *

"Some thugs, huh?" Saitou raised an unbelieving brow. The boy was hiding something; he was sure of it. He looked around at the older Himura. He too was blinking his eyes in a skeptical sort of way.  
  
Well, they weren't the Hitokiri Battousai and the Captain of the Third Troop Shisengumi for no reason. In the Bakumatsu, any miscalculation or misreading of their opponents might have got them killed; they wouldn't be standing there if they were any idiots.  
  
"They're one hell of some thugs, if what you said is true," said Kenshin in a bored voice. He'd tried any and everything to weasel the truth out of the kid, but after an hour of cross-examination Battousai simply sealed his mouth completely and insisted that those intruders were "some sort of thugs".  
  
"I aren't here to talk about thugs, anyway," said Saitou, finally giving up with a sigh. He had discovered, bit by bit, that the 15-year-old invincible Battousai was really no more than a child; every part of him resembled a mere boy, which was doubly hard to notice when this "boy" was in battle.  
  
Battousai stretched himself out on the tatami mat, tired of being investigated by the two older men who were definitely not morons. "You come to talk about the negotiation, right? Fine then, psycho cop, you can leave me out." He was growing steadily more comfortable with Saitou's presence; now the kid seemed able to forget that the Miburo was the culprit who nearly sent him to an early grave that very spring. The boy also took pleasure in thinking up weird and mildly insulting names for the ex- Shisengumi, such as "psycho cop" and "badass wolf". Quite to his dismay, Saitou never reacted to those names; The placid wolf already had a lot of practice with Sano when it come to calling names.  
  
He sure is trusting, the wolf thought, but he gave the hitokiri a blood- freezing glare before he continued.  
  
Battousai watched, thoroughly bored, as both dragon and wolf pored over rolls and rolls of what seemed like one year's worth of intelligence on the so-called Vanguard of Justice assassination group.  
  
Aren't they bored, the younger Himura wondered idly. "I can't see the use of looking over excess information and stuff. Just go in there, talk, kick their ass if they won't listen. Things got to be more interesting that way."  
  
The Wolf of Mibu raised a brow behind the heap of paper, thinking what a miracle it had to be for Battousai to have survived the Bakumatsu with that theory.  
  
"You used to think like that?"  
  
"Well...sessha does," replied the rurouni, slightly embarrassed. "But then sessha got loads of people to plan things for me. All I have to do is," he tilted his chin towards his younger counterpart, "as he said, 'Just go in there, talk, kick their ass if they won't listen.' Leave out the word 'talk', de gozaru." He amended, returning to the parchment he was reading.  
  
A slight hint of a smirk lingered on Saitou's mouth, but he too buried himself into explaining to the ex-hitokiri certain intelligence and whatnot. Battousai, feeling left out, walked over and stared out at the window. It was a fine day indeed; he trained his eyes on certain shoppers stalking past, wondering how Shishou could explain to the so-called friends- of-his-brother why he'd disappeared off the surface of the earth along with Kenshin.  
  
The boy yawned. He wanted out. He just wanted a walk outta this room, out of earshot of this good-for-nothing discussion. He looked from the open window to his two companions, and it could not be plainer that all he wanted was to jump out of the window once and for all.  
  
"Go on, stroll wherever you like. Just stay out of trouble and get back here before noon." Saitou called out in half a mind. With a muffled "yatte", Battousai leaped over the windowsill elegantly to freedom.  
  
"Matte!" Kenshin cried out. He was far too late; Battousai unmatchable speed had already brought him somewhere far out of sight.  
  
"Leave the boy be, Battousai. He can take care of himself," the wolf puffed on his cigarette serenely.  
  
"Demo..."  
  
"Don't forget, he's as much Battousai as you are," Saitou said reasonably, " and if the great Battousai couldn't take care of himself it's too bad."  
  
Kenshin settled himself with a small sigh. "Yeah, Sessha guess so."

* * *

A boy, clad in midnight blue and no more than fifteen, went streaking through the Kyoto streets as though he was a human tornado. He was absolutely fast; no one seemed able to take a good look of him as he ran past, street after street, gales of boyish laughter accompanying the superhuman speed.  
  
He couldn't believe he was doing that. He had heard the loud "matte" and...  
  
He chose to ignore it.  
  
The redheaded hitokiri laughed out loud. He knew he shouldn't be doing this to his older self.  
  
And yet he did it.  
  
It was such fun to pull a joke on the rurouni, just a small one wouldn't hurt. With an appreciative chuckle, the teenager steadied the daishou on his obi. He had his plans for the day.  
  
Katsura-san, sorry I can't return the wakizashi to you, he thought, couldn't help but feeling a little nostalgic over his former Ishin members. Hiroshiya...I hope you're all right. Just don't end up in the wrong place at the wrong time again. It could've gotten you killed.  
  
He nearly got himself flattened by a careening carriage, having run headlong into it amid his musings. Lucky for him, his excellent reflexes saved his neck just in time. Battousai gave himself a stern mental scolding; he really shouldn't be spacing out while he was walking, let alone running.  
  
Shaking his head clear of thoughts, Battousai started tracing his way back to his shishou's. All of a sudden he wanted to see his older self's friends, to make them his friends also. For Kami-sama's sake everybody need friends, and this hitokiri boy was certainly no exception.  
  
The flame-haired hitokiri skidded to an abrupt halt. He didn't feel right.  
  
He'd never needed friends. He'd never wanted to play tricks on anyone before. He'd never been bored of discussions of tactics or sorts when the situation demands it, which used to amaze his former Ishin comrades and confirm their believe that he was a boy from hell.  
  
In short, he'd never been a normal boy before.  
  
Maybe I'm right about staying here after all. Returning to the Bakumatsu would do me no good. And certainly do my victims no good, either.  
  
Staying in the Meiji Era is the best choice, ever.  
  
They were lunatics, Hiko decided, massaging his temple softly. He wondered irritably how a number of three people could produce a market's worth of noise.  
  
It was entirely his two baka deishi's fault.  
  
He muttered a string of curse words under his breath, hoping his baka deishi - two of them- might just get run over by a carriage and die a painful death.  
  
He was close too.  
  
But as we all know, dreams never come true.  
  
"Shishou! Kaoru-san! Sanosuke's-san! Yahiko-chan!" a cheerful voice erupted from out of nowhere. "I am back!"  
  
Kaoru came out from a bush with a bokken and a murderous expression, screaming something about a certain brat not respecting ladies. Yahiko ran fast as he could, smirking and shouting "tanuki" and "busu" at the top of his voice.  
  
Oh boy, shishou must hate it, Battousai surveyed the scene with savage interest.  
  
The red-haired boy ducked down reflexively to avoid a shinai making contact with his head.  
  
"NO ONE CALLS ME CHAN!''  
  
"Maa Maa, Yahiko-CHAN!" Sano appeared, lazily dragging himself across the clearing, "yo there, Kentai-kun. Got any news on Kenshin?" he inquired, trying to wrench a biting Yahiko off his spiky hair.  
  
"Why, you rooster-head."  
  
"Kids should shut up while adults are talking!"  
  
"Adults? I bet you he's only five years older than me at most!"  
  
"Brilliant, aren't you? Kenshin with a brother fourteen years younger than himself? He probably looks that young coz of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu...Yahiko- CHAN."  
  
Battousai blinked helplessly at the two dragging himself into their argument. Stealing a look at his shishou, he noticed that the man looked rather annoyed.  
  
"Baka deishi," Battousai gave a start, being addressed unexpectedly.  
  
"Hai, shishou?"  
  
"Some magnificent friends your brother's got there, isn't it?" Hiko shook his head, offering him some sake.  
  
The hitokiri had to stifle a smirk as he took the cup. "Aa."  
  
That single syllable somehow managed to suppress the chaos at once. As Kaoru, Sano and Yahiko suddenly realized that they were acting like total animals before a half-stranger, the three of them shut their mouths up in unison; looking as embarrassed as anyone could be.  
  
"Gomen nasai Kentai-san!" said Kaoru sweetly, straightening her kimono self- consciously while Yahiko pretended to vomit behind her back. She ignored him; common sense was telling her unless she was approved by this Kentai- sama, she had no way of marrying Kenshin. After Kentai-san is gone he'll wish he'd never been born, the tanuki girl let the evil thought drift across her head.  
  
Of course, her common sense was simply out of place.  
  
Battousai bowed curtly, wondering how a beauty like that could be as violent as a tigress; all the while marveling at how his counterpart could stand being shouted at by a mere woman. Ah, women. What murderous creatures they are!  
  
He doesn't like me, Kaoru thought horrified. He doesn't approve of a violent tomboy as a sister-in-law! Gripping a handful of her own kimono, the Kamiya girl found her hands trembling slightly. Oh, if only I can save the beating for later...  
  
Ladies don't beat, commented a nasty voice in her head; ladies should sit elegantly, not running around beating up their deishi. Just look at Megumi...  
  
When she finally had the nerve to raise her head again, Battousai had already abandoned her to greet Sano. The two were slapping each other on the back like long lost friends. Kaoru scowled at them both, wondering how the rooster-head could have impressed this naive looking boy. Maybe she did need a lesson from that gangster after all.  
  
In what seemed like a whole lifetime Kamiya Kaoru sat brooding about the situation, while the other four continued their little meeting. She didn't see them huddled together talking things over seriously, not when Yahiko gave a particularly loud gasp; nor when Sano and Battousai silently walked down the mountain. A good impression would do the trick...yes.....but how on earth was she going to improve her image in Himura Kentai's eyes when she had already acted like a total jerk?  
  
"Busu! Hey busu! Snap outta it."  
  
Her natural reaction was to smack the ungrateful little brat on the head. "What is it Yahiko-CHAN?"  
  
Yahiko muttered something about a violent raccoon girl. "You sure you don't want to go with them? They're going to visit Kenshin."  
  
"Huh, what?"  
  
The young samurai pointed to a certain two people who had already shrunken to two tiny dots in the distance.  
  
"Shinmatte!"

* * *

**Author's note: Thanks for all your sweet reviews! I thought I was going to die when someone commented my story as good. I'm a bit stuck with the 3rd chapter, however. Seems like I'm unsure how the younger Kenshin should behave himself.  
  
Special thanks to all my reviewers! You've kept my creative juice flowing.  
  
Koe-760-sama: My first reviewer and idea provider, and your idea certainly click with mine! It's because of your support that I'm able to finish this chapter in two more day's time after your review!! (Bows respectfully) But now I got a trouble with the Vanguard of Justice assassination group thing, thinking about whether I should write about the negotiation or not. Of course those people don't really negotiate without a fight, if you see what I mean. And I just hope my action-describing don't suck too much.  
  
Sapphire Eyes-sama: About that grammar mistakes thing....I've suddenly found out, after re-reading it all over again (I'm too lazy to do so) that there IS a very big bunch of grammar mistakes. Gomen nasai! Next time I'll try to have them corrected before posting. Anyway thanks for your support! And the spacing thing...well originally it isn't supposed to look like that, but somehow it got into that strange format when I got it posted. I'm trying to sort that out too. Anyway, arigatou for being patient with my kindergarten sort of grammar, and for reading this story!  
  
Boomerang-chan-sama: Thanks for your compliments!! About the spacing, originally it isn't supposed to look like that but somehow it got into that strange format when I got it posted. Sorry about the inconvenience caused! And gomen nasai because in this chapter Battousai actually dislikes Kaoru! We'll have to wait and see though.....one thing about impression is it can change, ne?  
  
Liemtenshi-sama: A bunch of thanks to you! I wonder what liemtenshi means? Actually, I'm finding Battousai to be less murderous (oh god what did I do to him) and even playful in this chapter. I really wonder if it should go like that. Well actually I suppose this is the true character of Battousai aka Kenshin! Oh never mind, let him do anything if he wants to. I don't want a katana poking out of my screen and nailing me to my chair, no thanks. And about the interaction with Kenshin-gumi....it's quite a peculiar one I should say!  
  
Pearly-Chan-Sama- Thanks a lot! You're my first-ever reviewer on TFME. It means so much to me! People on TFME just never reviews. So a special thanks to you as I'm thinking about not posting it on TFME. I've changed my mind.  
  
Poppy-sama: I WILL ass on to it, definitely! I can't just let go before torturing Kenshin and Battousai, both! MUWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH (Poppy-sama sweatdrops)  
  
Dork-in-training-sama: The thingies you mentioned....seriously, those are supposed to be quotation marks but somehow they turn out really weird. I have tried absolutely every way to make it appear normal but it won't. I don't know why but can't upload my Words document, so I've to change them into HTML docs instead. But what happens is that those little errors keep popping up on my quotation marks! I swear it has nothing to do with my English! (blinks guiltily)**


	3. The negotiation

**Past and Future By Hitokiri-san )**

**Disclaimers: Sony, Viz and whatever, let's get this straight. First, you're definitely not suing me; second, I'm gonna sue you for suing me. Do I make myself clear?**

**A/N: sorry for the long delay, I'm having problems with uploading my file. Thank you for all the reviews (hugs reviewers so their eyes bulged for three times their normal size)!!! And special thanks to my double reviewers (hugs double reviewers so their eyes bulged for six times their normal size)!!! You're all wonderful! Please check the A/N under the story, reviewer-sama!!!!**

**Ch4 The negotiation**

"He's late. Late." Kenshin declared, balancing himself on his sakabatou carefully. Deciding he had enough of lying in bed, the former hitokiri just threw the sensei's warning completely out of the windows.

Saitou made no move to remind him of the sensei's words. If he had been in the ex-hitokiri's place he would also have hopped out of bed long ago. That's for sure.

"Wait a minute, can't you," the Miburo said lightly, but he was also frowning. From all that interactions with the Battousai, past or present, he knew it was completely out of Himura Battousai's character to be late.

"It isn't that hard to tell, isn't it? He's hiding something from us. What if..he is engaged in a fight or something?"

" If that's the case you won't be able to do anything. He is his own man and I don't suppose he'd like to be mothered around by anybody, eh?" The wolf merely poked his head out of the window.

"Sessha is not mothering him," Kenshin argued meekly, crossing his arms over his chest. "Right now we just don't need more complications to add to the list."

Saitou grinned almost devilishly. "Complications are fun."

The Hiten swordsman had to battle down the strong impulse to hit the lanky cop with something real hard. "I'd like to see you try it," he hissed through gritted teeth, but his expression turned worriedly thoughtful, " This whole time error - it's not like having an impromptu brother coming out of nowhere or anything like that. It's really that complex feeling, like.like you're being multiplied or something. All the while you know you're talking to yourself but you can never get used to it, I mean, your past is supposed to be something inside you, set and unchangeable, not something that can run around and make decision for itself. You know what I mean?" he concluded, at a total loss for words.

Saitou eyes searched the man's face with something akin to shock. Evidently he'd never expected their conversation would lead to something like this. He closed his eyes, trying to imagine the complicated situation the ex- hitokiri was in, but failing miserably.

"So, how are you going to settle him after all this? I don't suppose you have a way of sending him back to the Bakumatsu."

"Sessha has to. Anyway, I have a feeling that this..this insane situation is only temporary. It has to end. In any way possible. It's..getting on my nerves," the ex-Ishinshishi said in bafflement, "my past is not that..well..pleasant to me. But right now he is going to live as my brother, for how long I don't know."

The former Shisengumi Taichou nodded in acknowledgement with his back to Kenshin. "But you must have noticed, while he reminds you of the dark past you are his bright future. Think how he can survive the Bakumatsu after this little interaction with his future self. But, in addition," he tucked his hands behind him, "think how the Choshu clan can triumph without their trump card."

The redhead gave a tiny gasp. He had completely forgotten about that since the first day he met Battousai; there was too much going on and too much to think about. Saitou stared unseeingly out at the crowd jostling on the street below, thinking about the same matter that concerned his own past.

"Just imagine, at this very moment -it is Kyoto in Bakumatsu, the bloodwashed capital of chaos. Somewhere in the Ishin headquarter someone peered into the Himura Battousai's room just to find that the lone hitokiri is missing. Nope, he isn't out on a mission, not at any part of the quarter, nor out anywhere to relax. He has just dissolved into thin air." The Miburo chanted in a somewhat distant voice, " after a few fruitless searches, the someone panicked. He had the head - probably Katsura or Katagai - informed. The whole clan panicked. Their trump card - not to mention the most important asset -has disappeared and is currently nowhere to be found. There are predictions, probably a hitokiri like him has been killed by the Shisengumi or whatever Shogunate clan. Without that hitokiri boy that all have taken for granted, the Ishinshishi samurai are now no more than a bunch of rebellious farmers. They cannot win against the Shogunate. The Meiji government is never formed. Thus." He abruptly turned around to face the rurouni.

"..we are living in a world that never exists."

The other samurai's eyes flashed in understanding, but evidently he didn't want to accept it. "What are you getting at Saitou?"

"You understand this as well as I do, Battousai. A world that does not exist disappears. Or, more precisely, it won't even need to disappear because it never exists. The very presence of this boy is a threat to this world. He has to be eliminated, although.." He trailed off, sounding a little upset. Obviously the cold-looking wolf had taken a liking to the little hitokiri boy.

"Eliminated?" the younger man returned blankly, "but..those you said are predictions. Maybe.there is some other way the Meiji government would be set up without Battousai. If that is the case it's alright for him to stay here. " He found his thoughts rather conflicting; the selfish part of him just want the lad out of his peaceful routine; the loving part of him wanted to take care of the lost boy. Whatever the case, he didn't want to hurt the hitokiri boy in any way.

"Oh, get real Battousai. You should know your comrades' ability better than I do. Before they recruited you, the Shisengumi never take them seriously, so as to say. You are their sole victory."

Kenshin muttered an unconvincing "demo", falling into an exhausted silence. His head swam. He was truly tired, both mentally and physically. The ex- manslayer wasn't in a good enough state for prolonged discussion, and surely not a complicated one like this. "Let's leave it for later."

The Miburo nodded in agreement. "I agree..hmph, moron."

Kenshin blinked, wondering how he'd merited that remark; but then realized that Saitou wasn't referring to him at all.

The former Shisengumi was leaning out of the window, eyes fixed disgusted at a certain something. Kenshin didn't need a look outside to see what the something was.

"Hey, what d'you bring him for? The rooster-head's useless."

"Dammit Saitou, I am more pissed off to see your evil face, you know!" Came a very audible bark from below. A lot of people swiveled around to see what had caused the commotion.

"Maa, maa.." the rurouni, always being the peacemaker, leaned out of the window. "Stop bickering, will you? Sano, come on in. And you too, Kentai."

"Hai," Battousai replied casually, much in a little-brotherish way. Sano, however, wasn't one who'd been used to following orders.

"Oi Kenshin," the ex-gangster greeted enthusiastically, but then his face darkened as he saw the front of his chest wrapped in bandages. "You hurt?"

"Daijoubu." Kenshin said lightly.

Sano frowned, didn't believe it. He had heard too much of Kenshin's "daijoubu"s to actually buy it.

"Hang on there, I'm coming in." With that he entered the house with a light sprint, Battousai following with a small smile on his face.

"You're bringing trouble along, boy," the Miburo said the moment the shouji to Kenshin's bedroom was slid open, "you spent the whole day fetching the moron here? What a waste a of time."

"I'm not a boy, badass Miburo," retorted the hitokiri, earning an amused grin from Sano. Saitou glared at him with half a heart.

Damn, what a good reminder. He was starting to understand why Himura Battousai was constantly underestimated by various opponents. It was really hard to imagine a vengeful monster when what stood before you was a really fragile looking teenage boy. The wolf grimaced at the thought of calling him boy. He of all people should have known better than calling Himura Battousai "boy" while this "boy" was nothing but more than capable of successive murders.

Kicking the musing out of his brain, he redirected his sight on the teenage hitokiri once again. What's with that naïve look...you're one hell of an actor, Battousai.

"Anyway lunatic cop, I have taken the liberty to inform Sanosuke-san of our plans while we're on our way here," the hitokiri boy said almost cheerfully, still holding that small smile on his lips. "We could use some help."

"Or some hindrance."

"You!"

"Sessha said 'stop that'," the rurouni intercepted firmly, "Kentai, go on."

Encouraged by the rurouni's words, Battousai continued as if there was no hindrance at all. "Our crazy Mibu wolf said that we're meeting the group at this warehouse somewhere in southeast Kyoto. Really smart place, there. It's ambush-proof with lots of escape routes." He fumbled through the heap of parchment looking for the particular map. Kenshin, reading his thoughts, fetched a roll lying on the windowsill and handed it to him.

"Thanks, nii-chan," the boy said absently, but his tone was absolutely natural. "There. This is the place." Battousai pointed to a miniscule building on the map marked with a red X. "Apparently the head of this gang thing must have some brains, because there is definitely no hiding place for any number of armed cops, whether we like it or not. So now we'll have to discuss our escape routes, which is the only thing left. Their true intention is currently unknown to us; but seriously; their wanting to negotiate sounds rather weird to me. So, we'll have to play safe. Agreed?"

Saitou looked mildly surprised while the ex-gangster actually goggled at him. The hitokiri may hate meetings, but he surely had the ability to lead one. Right now he was making up an undoubtedly well-organized plan without paying much attention to previous discussions.

"You've been listening all this time?" the wolf questioned, annoyed at himself all over again. I've underestimated him again. He's got guts, brains and power. Time to treat the lad as an equal, stupid wolf. He looked sideways at the rurouni, annoyed at his annoyance. The older Battousai was smiling in a knowing sort of way, not at all surprised at his younger counterpart's display of wisdom. Hell, of course he isn't surprised. That boy is him, he thought.

'Guess you can say so. Boring as it is, I can't just go help you without knowing anything beforehand. I'll be a hindrance if anything happens. Better plan things first so we don't go confused when it comes to fighting." Battousai replied nonchalantly.

Saitou nodded. That boy was certainly a great help, not a hotheaded idiot that would get in the way like a certain somebody. He threw a dirty look at the certain somebody, and was surprised that the 'somebody' still had the minimum amount of wisdom to understand this look.

"Hey Saitou! What was that look for? Are you thinking I'll be a hindrance when it comes to fighting, you murderous bastard of a wolf?"

"No need to state the obvious, rooster-head," retorted Saitou calmly, "just think you have a lesson to learn from him, especially when it comes to the part that concerns the brain." He pointed at Sano's head briefly, then turned his head to look at Battousai again.

Sano opened his mouth to voice some sharp comment, but swallowed it back whole when the younger Himura gave him a piercing glare.

"You two are surely not on good terms, ne?" Battousai muttered critically. He gave each of his companions a stern defiant stare as if daring them to interrupt again. "As I was saying, we need to play safe. Therefore, I have inspected the warehouse this morning and discovered that..what's wrong? " his tone changed from matter-of-fact to bafflement as he surveyed the older two of his companions.

"Uh..you've checked upon the site already?" the rurouni was barely able to conceal his surprise. The wolf, likewise, was wondering what the boy wasn't able to do in such a short time.

"Aa, why not?" Battousai waved his wide-eyed surprise away detachedly, " they've already heightened security and I have a bad feeling about this. It's like they're preparing for a battle. Anyway," he pointed to the two detached lines on the map that represented the main gates of the warehouse, " there are four guards here, another eight in the inner door, sixteen in the courtyard, and about thirty inside. They're patrolling in a certain complex formation, like this - he positioned his second and third fingers of both hands on the map and began moving them in an imitation of the formation mentioned. The two Bakumatsu warriors watched gravely in recognition.

"Pretty impressive." Saitou remarked, "one of the Ishin's favourites, eh Battousai?"

Kenshin nodded, and so did Battousai. "An almost flawless formation which we'd applied.."

"..to protect Katsura-san and other important leaders." The hitokiri continued subconsciously.

Saitou rummaged through his pocket for yet another cigarette. " So the leader is former Ishinshishi after all. But what's interesting is that my informant has never told me any of this formation stuff." He scowled as if insulted by this. At the side Sagara shifted uncomfortably; clearly formations were something of a foreign matter to him.

"Maybe he cannot recognize the form, that's all," Battousai said consolingly, "after all that's supposed to be Ishin top secret - that is till the end of the Bakumatsu, of course."

"Sou ka?" Saitou chose to lay that matter down, at least for now.

"And then.." Battousai muttered as his finger traced the outline of the warehouse, "windows all locked, the whole place full of explosives, a lot of secret doors that are not accessible unless you know how to..in short, it's hard to escape if we have the need to. But we don't want to be trapped there needlessly. "

"And your suggestion would be?" the rurouni inquired, knowing that he wouldn't point out the whole imperious situation for nothing.

The hitokiri smiled at his counterpart's attempt to cooperate with him. "I was just thinking if our badass Miburo's informant would do us a favour."

The next two days passed without further trouble. Sano had agreed that Kaoru should not be informed of the current affair since all were sure she would be extremely worried; and had returned to Hiko's to think up some crackpot story as to where Kenshin had gone. It wasn't entirely successful, however. A disgruntled Sano told two chuckling Kenshins afterwards that he had very nearly been skinned by an enraged Kaoru who simply refused to be denied the truth; out of ideas, the tanuki girl had resorted to tagging Sano around the mountain. Sano, in return, brought her for a prolonged game of hide-and-seek before finding himself in a totally foreign part of the forest.

Which meant, once again, that our brilliant Sagara Sanosuke had lost his way.

Battousai, meanwhile, had trusted no one else but himself to collect intelligence on the Vanguard of Justice Group. He was out early in the morning and back late at night. Kenshin had reassured him that he was recuperating well; he was, at least, able to move freely except for a slight stiffness in his stance. Saitou was back at his station half the time as if to arrange things necessary; but had appeared at Kenshin's temporary home every so often to share new information and strategies. He also told the two Himuras that his informant would do the special "favour" for them.

To Battousai's relieve, Zenei Makimoto and his group never appeared as they had promised; surely there would be enough time to deal with them after the ordeal is over.

How wrong he was.

The redheaded boy slid through the darkened alleys of Kyoto, having collected some information that would be extremely helpful if they were ever to engage in a fight. His eyes darted around the corners, making sure that he was not being followed.

No one indeed.

He emerged from the shadows to enter the house where his older counterpart was. Suddenly, a hand gripped his right shoulder and another attempted to clamp over his mouth.

Battousai's heart plummeted. He was damned sure that no one was there..the boy panicked, and for a fleeting second the hitokiri sense took over.

Twisting his body, he flung the hand off his shoulder and ducked the other aiming for his mouth, using the twist to unsheathe his katana in a wide circle aimed for the opponent's head; but somehow the other opponent managed to produce a screen of blinding white light before him. As the katana made contact with the screen, Battousai was thrown backwards as though a vigorous electric current was emitted from it.

"Argh! Dammit Zenei, why do you have to jump at me like that? You scared me out of my wits!" Battousai growled furiously, tilting his head upwards.

Zenei approached him with an apologetic expression. "Gomen, Himura. I forgot you couldn't see me at normal times. I just don't want you to shout out, that's all," he offered a hand to Battousai, who took it with an additional glare.

"Why are you looking for me?" demanded Battousai, already knowing the answer.

"About the time turner.."

"Iie, I don't recall what I've been doing when I got transferred here." Battousai said, intercepting him. Zenei stared at him with penetrating dark eyes much like the way Hiko would when he had done something wrong. Battousai flinched internally; there was something with those eyes..

"Don't." said Zenei quietly.

"Huh?" inquired Battousai, momentarily puzzled.

"Don't lie to me, Himura. I have the ability to see through lies." His voice was reasonably calm, but it was taking the Ishin hitokiri all his will to resist the urge to reach for his katana. He took a deep breath; his answer was resolute.

"No, I will not."

"Why?"

"I don't want to kill anymore. I want to help others like my present self does. Help others as a rurouni, not as a hitokiri."

Zenei looked at him for a moment. "That was good of you, Himura. But that is no excuse to alter history. Please give me the time turner."

"Then I will make myself plain. I refuse to return the time turner to you. I am sorry."

A dreadful silence fell as the boy awaited Zenei's answer.

"I do not want to hurt you," Zenei said, raising his voice a bit.

"I am ready for that," the boy's hand hovered above the hilt of his katana.

Both tensed, ready for the inevitable battle. Battousai went into a battoujutsu stance, but Zenei stood upright, seemingly harmless. Battousai knew better than that - just by looking at the light screen he'd created, there was no doubt Zenei was capable of mass destruction.

"Let us begin."

Without further ado, Battousai leaped into the air. "Ryu Tsui - "

He was about to attack when something invisible struck him in the stomach; it sent him falling solidly on the ground. He reeled around, gasping for breath.

He's a devil..what did he hit me with? A single thought swirled around his mind as his lungs cried for air. He was panting on all fours, vision darkening.I cannot hold against him any longer. I'll have to return to the Bakumatsu in the end. I..I lost..

The hitokiri dropped unconsciously onto the ground, his katana released from his hand with a clatter.

" Kenshin! Kenshin!"

Battousai sat hold upright, nearly bumping into another person who was kneeling at the side of his unconscious form.

"Rurouni? Why am I here? What happened to me? I."

The rurouni signaled for a stop, putting a hand on his shoulder consolingly. "You must calm down first, Kenshin. Think. What has happened to you?

The boy closed his eyes. He could remember his midnight assignment, then..yes, he met Zenei Makimoto, and..

"I got knocked out by him. He's a devil."

"Huh? Who?"

One single thought popped into the hitokiri's mind. He did not know of Zenei Makimoto..he need not know of him. Will he hesitate to send me back to the Bakumatsu when he finds out about this? I hope not.

"Eh, what did I say?"

He felt the ex-hitokiri's hand on his forehead. "Man, is he delirious?" Kenshin muttered worriedly.

Resisting the temptation to smile, Battousai chose to play along. "Don't think I am feeling well..maybe I have a slight fever, that's all."

"Maybe you should rest tomorrow. You're in no state to fight the Vanguard of.."

"NO." Battousai said, louder than he intended.

Battousai jerked awake to the distant sound of birds calling. Wiping the sweat off his face, he tried to steady his ragged breath. Just another bad dream, he realized. I've not been killing anyone, no. There is no blood on my hands, darn it. How many more times will I have to go through this?

The boy cradled his hands into his chest, holding back the tears that threatened to fall down his face. I've almost forgotten about the bad dreams since I got here. I was too happy. And they've stopped bothering me.But now they're back. There must be something to do with that Zenei guy, the teenage boy decided. Closing his dampened eyes he recited a very colourful curse directed at the dark-haired man.

And speaking of bad dreams..

Battousai glimpsed at the rurouni sleeping in his futon at the other end of the room. He would never forget that expression on the rurouni's normally placid face.

Kenshin's features were scrunched up in an agonized expression, his mouth slightly ajar in a soundless scream. His breath came in shallow, quick gasps; for a heart-stopping moment the hitokiri thought he was dying of some heart disease.

"Rurouni!" the frightened boy scrambled up from his sleeping spot at the corner and darted to his older self's side. "RUROUNI!"

He shook him vigorously but to no effect; the rurouni simply lolled his head to the other side and went on with his coma. "Damn it, rurouni, wake up!" the hitokiri shook him harder - under the faint glow of the first rays the wanderer's face looked pearly white.

He would have kept shaking him if not for the three syllables whispered hoarsely from the older Kenshin's lips.

"To-mo-e.."

"Please, what are you talking about," Battousai said desperately, "c'mon, just wake up will you?"

"Why does this happen? I am the murderer. I should be the one who's dead. I deserved it. You don't. NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Battousai froze, cold sweat soaking his yukata. Who was the rurouni talking to? No matter who, that person was certainly dead by now, judging by Kenshin's seemingly random words. And what was this girl's name? Tomoe? What the.

An idea clicked into his mind. This was just too bizarre. The boy ran out of the house, stooping at the edge of the well in the courtyard he pulled up a bucket of water. Then jumping into the bedroom through the window in his hurry, he dumped the whole pail of water upon the wanderer's head.

"Oro! " startled violet eyes met lavender ones, and the hitokiri dropped to his knees.

"Kami-sama.I was terrified! You - won't - wake- up! I.." the red-haired boy breathed out, trembling from head to foot.

The rurouni himself looked shaken, but he smiled soothingly nonetheless. "Daijou - "

The hitokiri stared fiercely at him, his eyes slightly red. "Don't you 'daijoubu' me, rurouni. I'm you! I think like you do, I act like you do, and a difference of fourteen years cannot deny the fact that we are one! Or have you forgotten that as well?" he laid a hand on the rurouni's, his tone softening to a pleading one. "Please, Kenshin. Stop closing yourself to me. Leave the 'daijoubu'-ing to everyone else, but not me, okay? Because I know you don't mean 'daijoubu' when you say it." He added, pouting in a childish way.

The wanderer smiled, closing his eyes. "Gomen, Kenshin. Sessha should know better. I had a bad dream, de gozaru."

The hitokiri's expression softened at the long awaited confession. "That I know, I have those bad dreams frequently too. But what did you dream about? Bloodshed? Or our victims?"

He doesn't have to know that.the rurouni thought sternly. "Yes, my victim." He said softly. And a very special one as well

"Tomoe?" the boy said slowly, acknowledging this.

Kenshin's blood froze. He must look quite frightening because Battousai actually backed away from him in fear.

"How..how d'you know that?" he asked carefully, the expression vanishing from his face as he realized his shock.

He's being evasive again, dammit, Battousai thought angrily. "Ahou, of course I know! What do you expect, after you've shouted it in your dream for the whole street to hear? I don't care, but you are telling me who- she-is!" Battousai yelled, standing up in his anguish.

"You need not know." The rurouni said solemnly, rising along with his counterpart, "for your own happiness."

"So you think I'll be happy with you hiding everything from me, huh? You're telling it to me now!"

"Iie," Kenshin said quietly, "Sessha is sorry."

"FINE! Do it your own way, you stupid rurouni! I-AM-GOING." Turning around with a extraordinarily colourful curse that Kenshin had forgotten he even know Battousai snatched up his neatly folded blue gi and grey hakama and stomped out of the room, looking hurt on top of angry.

Kenshin made no move to stop him, but his tired eyes followed the Ishin hitokiri as he made his departure. He appeared mournful although Battousai had missed it, being too engaged in his fury.

"A nice boy," Kenshin looked down at the figure leaving through the main door, dressed in the blue gi and grey hakama again. Enraged as he was the boy couldn't possibly go anywhere in his sleeping robes. The ex-hitokiri smiled amusedly at this.

"He doesn't deserve to know. This punishment is for me and me alone."

Saitou arrived two hours later, wearing his usual bright blue uniform that gave him quite an I-am-an-innocent-policeman look. That is, if you were not staring at his eyes.

Kenshin peered gloomily at the window. Saitou was standing cross-legged at the porch, waiting for the famous ex-hitokiri to sense him.

"Saitou."

"Battousai."

"Are you ready?" Saitou said as if calling for a picnic trip.

Kenshin nodded seriously. "Aa."

The rurouni walked down the stairs, looking a little puffy-eyed. The Miburo was somewhat amused. "What's wrong, Battousai? Haven't got enough sleep?" he asked in a sardonic tone.

"Shut up," snapped Kenshin, unable to stifle a yawn. As usual, this seemed entertaining to the ex-Shisengumi Taichou. He snickered as he started walking back out of the porch the way he came.

"Where's the other one?" he inquired, fairly surprised that the younger Himura wasn't with Kenshin.

"He isn't going." The ex-Ishinshishi replied simply, but there was a hint of storminess in his voice.

Saitou wasn't the sort of people to ask why; his only reaction was a brief rising of his brow. "Even so, his investigations came in useful. Real help, that kid.

Kenshin muttered a vague reply, suddenly filled a pang of guilt. He should have stopped the boy from wandering off. Though Kenshin was sure no one was capable of hurting his shadow self he was worried about his health. There's something wrong with him, he'd just fainted a couple of hours ago on the street.He should be resting, but somehow sessha made him go berserk..

"Something wrong?" asked Saitou walking alongside him.

"Iie."

"If that's something about the other Battousai, I suggest you leave it for later. Right now, just concentrate." The wolf advised grimly, turning towards the mouth of an alley. Kenshin followed.

He has a point. It's no time for worrying. I should be thinking about the negotiation. What I should say to that group of apparently desperate people. He thought he could understand their feeling - there were certain laws exercised by the Meiji government that really deserved a hard blow on the idiot-brains of those lawmakers. And the widespread of corruption had sent the people's blood boiling.

That was why Kenshin often heard mutterings in the streets saying it would be really nice if Battousai could just pop out of nowhere and slice the politicians' drunken heads off.

Of course, they were only joking.

The Mibu wolf led him through main streets and dark alleys, and Kenshin noticed that the crowd was gradually thinning. Which only meant, in a way, that their destination wasn't in the middle of a bustling town but somewhere more remote.

And for that, the ex-assassin was exceptionally grateful.

They walked for another half hour. Both had memorized the whole town map thoroughly (for Saitou's case, he was in there so often there was really no need to memorize it) and were having absolutely no problem in locating their destination.

"Is this the place?" Kenshin looked up incredibly at the warehouse, which looked rather miserable with a ran-down roof and chipped windows. This was his first look at the building since he was lying in bed most of the time.

Saitou looked unimpressed. "From what the boy told me, it was something like the Purgatory. You see what I mean."

Kenshin scrutinized the building again. It even had the look of a long- abandoned warehouse, though the ex-Ishin soldier was sure there were a huge bunch of men in there. "Uh-huh. Whoever designed it is a genius."

The wolf nodded his approval. "We have to be careful. Don't think you can solve this with the way you did with Raijuta. This guy's (he tilted his chin towards the warehouse) got brains."

The ex-Shisengumi halted in front of the rusting iron gate, Kenshin following suit. Battousai's intelligence was flawless - there were indeed four guards at the main gate, hidden behind the bushes.

One by one they appeared, staring at both dragon and wolf in a knowing way. The one in the middle approached them, bowing with courtesy. "Himura Battousai-san, Saitou Hajime-san. Master is expecting you. This way, please." Extending a hand in the direction of the house they led the duo through doors and corridors.

So they've checked up on us pretty well, too. The two Bakumatsu survivors thought simultaneously, catching each other's eyes. They noted, too, that the formation aforementioned by Battousai was in operation. Eight in the inner door, sixteen in the courtyard, and about thirty scattered around the house. One small part of their minds also noticed how nice the house was decorated on the inside. Western-style ornaments blended with Japanese- style furniture to give the whole structure a luxurious air.

The whole place full of explosives, a lot of secret doors that are not accessible unless you know how to.Kenshin took in the sight around him, remembering his younger self's words. His eyes scanned the house. No explosives in sight, nor any secret doors.

Baka! You think they'll put all the explosives in front of your face? And secret doors are called secret doors because they're secret, Kenshin scolded himself, amused at his own naiveté. The whole house was like an extremely complicated maze. He'd be lost in no time if he continues to goof around, the ex-Battousai decided.

"Master is waiting for you behind this door." The leading guard declared respectfully, snapping Kenshin out of his jumbled thoughts. He bowed his way out, and both samurai bowed in return.

Kenshin laid his hand on the door. So, the main character for all this chaos was behind this thin layer of wood. Inhaling a deep breath, he pushed the door open.

It was like entering Shishio's hideout once again.

A magnificent stair was staged at the center of the hall, covered with a violet carpet embroidered with golden seams and strange signs that looked suspiciously like the badge of the group. Extending upwards like a giant violet snake, the wide stair was lined with people obviously from the highest ranked to the lowest. A black-clad figure sat at the far end of the stair and a variety of people stood behind him, dressed very differently from the others lining the stairs. Kenshin was forcefully reminded of the Juppongatana that was Shishio's best weapon before they disintegrated.

It'll be fine as long as they're not as good as the Juppongatana, Kenshin thought darkly. Without hesitating he stepped up the stairs to where the leader was, looking serenely determined. Those pawns on the stair steps fixed them with glassy, lifeless looks as if they were nothing but standing puppets.

Thud. Thud. Their footsteps reverberated in the deadly silent hall as they mounted the stairs. They were quiet as cats, Saitou mused as his amber eyes swept over his potential enemies in the room. Pretty good fighters, huh. Battousai and I are outnumbered to about fifty-to-one, including the five men standing behind our main man. He glanced sideways at Kenshin. Staring straightly ahead, the ex-Ishin hitokiri looked nothing but coolly composed. Guess his pretty words can't help this time.

The black-clad figure stood up with a swish of his cloak as the two samurai were halfway through the stairs. At a closer distance, Kenshin and Saitou could see clearly that the man was really young. About twenty-three or twenty-four, he still had an almost boyish look about him although the way he held himself suggested highly disciplined authority.

Kenshin stopped about four feet away from the leader, regarding the man with sufficient alert. With large pit-black eyes and curly brown hair braided into a complicated sort of ponytail, he strongly resembled Soujiro. Only he seemed even more sure of himself than Soujiro was. After all, Seta Soujiro was sort of lost.

This man certainly wasn't.

Much to Kenshin's surprise, the man gave him a warm smile along with a slight tilting of his head.

"After all those years we meet again, Kenshin-nii."

"Kenshin..nii?" the ex-hitokiri stepped back wide-eyed.

"Hai, Kenshin-nii," the man looked a little downcast. " Don't you remember who I am? There..who was that child you encountered at the age of fifteen? Who wept for you when he was informed about Tomoe-san? Who begged you for a single sparring session so that he could get strong?"

"You!"

"Yes, Kenshin-nii. Even now I can remember what you said to me in our last encounter..before you left without a goodbye, that is," the black-eyed man's eyes had a hint of sadness, and he deepened his voice a little in a perfect imitation of the 18-year-old Kenshin.

" 'Be strong, Tasuka. Be strong so that you could be the protector of the new era. Be strong so that you can protect your loved ones. You will witness the coming of a new age, and you will live in it...happy as all others will be.' That's what you said to me." Tasuka said quietly, staring into Kenshin's violet orbs.

Kenshin nodded in recognition. "Yashiro Tasuka."

"You were good, yet you treated me as an equal - a brat with nothing better to do than dogging you around. I worshipped you. I wanted to be a hitokiri." Tasuka said slowly as if he had all the time in the world.

"I told you no. A child is best kept innocent when he is still so." Kenshin replied, absorbed in old memories.

"Iie. I will help them. I've always wanted to help them. If I can't be a hitokiri to overthrow the Tokugawa dynasty, I will be one to overthrow the Meiji government." Tasuka continued casually. "I've always known that you will come. To know why we have used your name. To negotiate with us so as to avoid further bloodshed. Such is the character of rurouni Himura Kenshin, a good person as he was as a hitokiri." He smiled again, and Kenshin furrowed his brows. So he don't give a damn about my being rurouni or hitokiri like all others did, he mused.

"But we are just getting started. To be frank, we were waiting for you. Then we'll be starting on the big shots. But first.. we need you."

Kenshin gazed steadily at him, clearly at a loss for words. Clearly he couldn't believe a person such as Yashiro Tasuka would have any reason to overthrow the Meiji government.

"But.. Tasuka. Why?"

"Why? Kenshin-nii, you must think I am a crazy nut like Shishio or something, trying to pull down the government you build up. But at the end you will understand. And you will help me."

Year 1864, Genji 2nd year

The fire was covering the whole place, Kenshin realized.

And he was going to choke to death.

He cut through yet another blockcade with a trembling slash. He couldn't see the exit anywhere. They were trapped. And the Shisengumi were behind..

The woman sputtered and fainted, becoming a dead weight in his hands. Kenshin went down on one knee, unable to balance the sudden weight. The hem of his hakama caught fire. The man following him screamed with fright.

Shinmatte! This is just getting worse, Kenshin thought, panicking. I am never going to make it out of here alive. But.he glanced at the man behind him, face covered in soot.... no matter what, Kaitori Yashiro-san is getting out of here in one piece. I promised Katsura-san. I promised.

"Hiramei-dono!" he shook her slightly, but in vain. The boy crashed straight through the burning door. He was suffocating, stars dancing in his vision..dammit, I can't see properly..he stumbled, tripping over a fallen beam. The sleeve of his blue gi smoked. He had no strength to stand up again..

"Take her and go! Now!" he shouted to the man, who was basically unharmed because of his protection. The man hesitated.

Undecided fool, Himura cursed. For one moment the world swirled around him in a multi-coloured hurricane. His head drooped and he lost conscious.

"Himura! HIMURA!"

Kenshin felt something cool on his forehead. He opened his eyes blearily; the image of his best friend Hiroshiya wove in and out of vision.

"The Yashiros! Are they all right?" Kenshin sat bolt upright, causing the wet towel to fall off his forehead. A few of the Ishin members were looking concernedly at him.

"Himura.you've done your best. Now lie down and stop talking." Hiroshiya said firmly, pressing the struggling Kenshin to the ground.

"WHAT?" Kenshin cried, pushing Hiroshiya aside roughly. The Yashiros were dead, he thought feverishly. And it was his fault.

I have broken my promise.

He stood up shakily, fell face-first, and stood up again stubbornly. The fire was still burning nearby, sending a wave of heat over him. He wasn't out for long, one part of his mind noted.

"He's still inside! Please, let me in!" someone wailed loudly. Kenshin turned his head; the two Yashiros were struggling against a member of the Ishinshishi, wanting to be let into the hell of fire that was once their home.

Mind filled with relief, Kenshin staggered to meet them. Hiroshiya followed, supporting Kenshin by his arm.

"Why isn't your son coming out with Himura-san? If he's in there you should have told Himura-san!"

"I've told you! I thought he was already out here because I didn't see him anywhere.."

"Please, you can't go in there!! It's too dangerous. You won't be able to come out."

"No!"

"Niji!" Kenshin panted.

"Himura-san!"

"What's happening here?"

"Yashiro-dono said her son is still in there!" Niji told him.

"WHAT!" Oh great. What a nice surprise. He was supposed to get the Yashiros out of there alive and unscathed.

The woman stumbled over, falling to her knees amid hysterical sobs. "Please, Himura-san.please save my son. If he's dead I..I.."

Kaitori Yashiro came over, but he looked at Kenshin's battered form and closed his eyes. "Don't do that, Hiramei. We can't sacrifice someone else's son because of Tasuka, we can't." He cradled his wife in his arms, tears sliding down his face.

"Sayonara, Tasuka," Kaitori whispered.

Kenshin clenched his fists.

I was the only boy there and I didn't have any parents, so I tried to protect them..

but they protected me..

"Well, I'll protect them now," he said aloud, making up his mind. "Hiroshiya, Niji, wait for me here. And don't let them get anywhere near the fire."

I must be totally crazy, Kenshin thought as he darted towards the fire- swathed building.

I must be undoubtedly hopelessly definitely impossibly stupidly extremely crazy.

He jumped over a barrier of burning shouji, feeling frightened once again. Kuso I am always afraid of fire..

He scanned the burnt area around him. There was no sign of any living things, let alone a boy. Coughing, he blinked as a cloud of black smoke billowed in his face. "Tasuka? TASUKA! Can you hear.argh!" He quickly slipped his feet out of his tabi, which had caught fire in the little while he was standing still.

The boy leaped backwards, colliding with a stone something..a well. He was toying with his life, he realized. Tasuka must be dead by now, thanks to his mother's ignorance. He could just back out now.

That was when he heard a simple, whimpering sob.

Suddenly excited, he looked around for the source of the sob. Nothing in sight. The hitokiri boy went to the other side of the well, deciding to sense rather than listen.

He was right.

Tasuka was curled up against the well, sobbing pitifully. His clothes were half burnt and he seemed to be slowly losing conscious.

Kenshin's heart plummeted. He considered drawing water to wet them both but decided against it. It would be far too risky.

Bending down he folded the small boy into his lap. The child gave no reaction; Kenshin doubted if Tasuka could even sense him.

"Just hold on, everything will be all right, you'll be seeing your parents in no time.." Kenshin muttered reassuringly, though seriously he wondered if they would be seeing Kami-Sama in no time at the rate the mansion was toppling.

I'll have to pass through the toppling house again, the Ishin men are on that side. Kenshin stared straight ahead, knitting his brows tightly. Let just hope that it don't collapse before I can get outta it.

Samurai dressed in green-and-white haori were patrolling the outer area, searching for any chance survivors. Plainly the Shisengumi didn't want to go anywhere near the collapsing building, or think that anyone would still be there without being roasted.

"They do have a point, I am already roasting." Kenshin muttered to no one in particular. Cradling the boy protectively in his left hand he unsheathed his katana with his right. Battling his heightening fright the young samurai paved his way across the burning site, coughing so hard that his lungs ached dreadfully..

Once back inside the sizzling mansion, Kenshin started wishing that he had gone out the other way - the way where at least half a hundred Shisengumi, not to mention various other troops were currently patrolling. Anything would be better than what he was facing now.

There were no directions. No way in or out. Nowhere that can be passed over without attaining serious burns. Tongues of fire were reaching out to lick them, heat waves stifling them. They were doomed.

Hell would be better than this..

Time seemed to snail by as Kenshin thrashed pointlessly through the maze of fire. His mind became horribly blank, leaving only one thought in his mind -live, or burn to death. He kicked a burning something out of his way..live, or burn to death..the pit-black smoke was starting to recede..live, or burn to death..there was a porch somewhere at the corner of his sight, quite unaffected by the fire as there was almost nothing to be burnt..live, or burn to death..

What?

The hitokiri spun around. There was a small opening at his right, laden with burnt debris but mercifully free of the roaring flames. His eyes stung with tears of joy. The Yashiro boy is going to live after all. He skipped deftly over. They were free. And the boys' stupid parents would be waiting outside.

Except there was a horde of Shisengumi waiting instead of his parents.

A/U: (Jumping in joy) This little column is reserved for my reviewers! Thank you for your support! I'm sooooooo happy at the moment..

Koe-760-sama: Hehe! I'm sooooooo happy receiving your second review! Once again, your advices proved absolutely useful. I woke up sometime someday and suddenly an idea about that particular group popped into my mind. And then I start typing hyper-fast till four in the morning (actually I typed 1/5 of this chapter in that day) so that was the birth of Tasuka, Kaitori and Hiramei, all in three hours. Ah, how reviews can work! I found myself going out and wanting to just get the hell home so I could lay my hands on my computer so I could type the stupid story so I could post it in time so I could get reviews. And Koe-760-sama's name kept popping up on my Reviews Alert! Well I'm not making much sense. Sometimes I hope I can type faster because I want to get the Kenshin- Tasuka's past out! I'm getting really excited about that currently still thinking about why Tasuka should like to overthrow the Meiji like all other nuts Anyway, isn't down for a few days? I've been checking for reviews everyday (you know) and something like DNS Error kept popping up. See yah in the fourth chapter!

Sapphire Eyes-sama: Hi again Sapphire Eyes-sama! I'm not really sure you're out there but anyway I will write this (just in case!) I'm currently making more and more grammar mistakes (sweatdropping) but I hope it will improve! It has to! And arigatou for reading the story!

Boomerang-chan-sama: B-chan-sama, my wonderful double-reviewer! I was thrilled to see your review again(weeps hysterically) Yes, definitely, Battousai's messed up the past and he's gonna pay! He's messing up the future as well - Zenei was right, it was dangerous. But that's not in this chapter! I'll have finish with the Tasuka guy first! (kicks Tasuka as he is taking up my time) And Battousai just walked out of the screen?! No! He'll be back! And soon! With trouble tagging at his heels! (Authoress is being a maniac) And about Kenshin and Battousai after Kaoru, I doubt if Battousai has enough time left in Meiji to do that! (checks watch, kicks Battousai) Hey, Battousai, do you have the time? Battousai: (scowling): coz! I am a girl magnet! Give me 24 hours and it'll be ok! Authoress: (claps forehand) what a conceited jerk!

Liemtenshi-sama: Liem-sama! WELCOME BACK Oh by the way, is "tenshi" translated from Chinese or Japanese? Sounds like Chinese to me.(I am Chinese ) I'm having great fun with the story, mainly because of the reviews! And ( about time too) that the stupid chapter had decided to come out at the right format after the Authoress had Ryu-Tsui-Sen-ed the keyboard about 1000 times. (grins evilly) no one messes with the invincible Hitokiri-san!

Poppy-sama: Welcome to the third chapter Poppy-sama! This is getting a bit long (waves hand helplessly) as I've suddenly decided to add in something extra.the Vanguard of Justice thing.thanks for your patience with my extra- slow uploads!

Dork-in-training-sama: Hello Dork-in-training-sama! I've already ficed the second chapter (screams in delight) it was stupid! Keeps turning my any three dots into one . Someday I'll kill the uploading system(eyes gleamed amber)

Akima Miota-sama: Thanks for the special email! You're my most recent reviewer and I erally don't know what to say only a heartfelt Arigatou! I think I have sent you the copy of this story, I hope you've received it! I'm so happy (authoress feeling giddy) I'm not making any sense. I haven't spell-checked or grammar-checked this chapter so I think there's gotta be a lot of mistakes, By the way, do you like Hiko? I do though not as much as I like Kenshin. He's so cool. But there's only a few fic about him on I'm disappointed so I wrote one called In Innocence. It's a one-shot and very short. Every fic I write has Hiko in it


	4. Of Old Friendships and New Threats

**Past and Future By Hitokiri-san**

**Disclaimers: I post this on my birthday, so ya scary men with fluffy white wigs for just one moment stop suing me and let me imagine that RK is mine. This is my birthday wish**

**A/N: Gomen for the long delay! The summer holidays are busy (as if!) no, I'm just stuck somewhere, and again with the format. _Authoress dodges flying tomatoes and carrots_ Anyway, the chapter's up, so stop cursing me under your breath. On with the story!**

**Ch5 Of Old friendships and new threats**

Argh! He had come out of where he had entered.

Cursing himself, Kenshin hesitated. He was surely not going back into the fire - but he was surely not going out to meet the bloodthirsty wolves either.

What's better, one of the Shisengumi decided to turn towards Kenshin's direction at the moment.

" There's someone over there!" the whole patrol group was notified, and at once a dozen people turned simultaneously to Kenshin.

Just what I need, more people to come to my rescue, the hitokiri thought mockingly. Not replying, he walked straight past the group, holding his katana loosely. Each of the Shisengumi unsheathed their swords, assuming sloppy (in Kenshin's opinion) Gatotsu stances.

"Stop or we'll attack this instance!" someone at his left called out. They were forming a tight circle around him, but none seemed too alert about this ash-laden boy who was actually the feared Hitokiri Battousai.

Even in such dangerous circumstances Kenshin felt insulted. No matter, they would all pay for that one.

It was just a matter of time.

"You want to know who I am?" Kenshin said, smiling sweetly. "I am Hi-to-ki- ri-Bat-tou-SAI!" he yelled, the movement of his katana accompanying each syllable. Thrusting his blade into a Shisengumi's chest, the boy pulled the blade out swiftly before the samurai behind him could ever have a chance to touch him. He dodged behind the falling Shisengumi soldier; the result was that the someone behind him ran his sword through his comrade's corpse.

Meanwhile, Kenshin was dealing with two other Shisengumi. They were but mere pawns, he realized. If only the boy wasn't such a heavy weight, if only his left hand was free.he glanced at the wakizashi at his side, waiting to sing through the air. It was no use. Crouching down, he slashed one enemy across the stomach. The other, seeing an opening, was aiming for his left shoulder.

He couldn't dodge the blow in time. Shifting a little, the boy let the blade graze over his arm instead of Tasuka's little body. Blood spurted from the gash but Kenshin didn't care; at least the child was not hurt. Gripping the kid tighter he spun the katana around and beheaded the man in question. Three down and nine left.

Only if he could defeat this group there would be an opening and they would be outta there, the hitokiri knew. He felt Tasuka shivering; glimpsing at the child briefly he saw his little face splattered with blood, both Kenshin's and the Shisengumi's. His charcoal-like eyes were open - he looked positively terrified at the bloodshed. Kenshin was reminded of himself on that fateful day when his three "sisters" died and Hiko took him in.

"Don't look," Himura instructed, gritting his teeth as the enemy in front sent a spray of blood over the two boys.

"Please put me down." A timid voice said quietly.

"Huh?" Kenshin did a rotating kind of swing that cut yet another person into half. His thoughts was becoming confused with the prolonged fight. He wondered how long he could endure this until his body would give way. Five down, seven remaining.

"Please release me. I am slowing you down." Tasuka looked up at him, black eyes filled with a queer serenity. "You don't have to protect me. You have done enough."

"Silence." Kenshin replied in a strangely calm voice that mirrored the boy's, although he was panting with the effort of running around his enemies while carrying a boy in his hands, "duty abides me to protect you and I have to." Swords danced and clashed. He couldn't use the Ryu-Tsui-Sen properly.

He staggered forward as a blow struck above his kneecap. There were still five of them, and they were knitted into a tighter format to avoid being isolated.

And he was so tired.

Without a warning Tasuka wrenched out of his grasp. Once on the ground he backed away fast as possible, away from any possibility of getting into Kenshin's way. "Stupid kid.what is he thinking?" Kenshin had no time to grab him or even stop his movements.

The remaining Shisengumi was taken aback for a fraction of a second before charging him again. A fraction of a second was definitely enough for the notorious Hitokiri Battousai. Performing a left-handed battoujutsu Kenshin finally had the wakizashi out in an arc of silver.

It was payback time.

* * *

He was injured and irritable and drenched in blood. His head throbbed and his torso was shaking.

Kenshin doubted if he was still alive, or at least considered living at his present state.

"Daijoubu?" he knelt on one knee and scrutinized the Yashiro boy.

He nodded.

"Well, in this case we're going back." Kenshin declared. There were a few more minutes before the next patrol group would arrive. Enough time for them to slip away quietly into the night.

The boy climbed onto his back. Kenshin wanted nothing but to just fall dead at the exact spot he was standing. But no, he still had Tasuka to attend to. Alive or dead he would have to bring Tasuka Yashiro back to his parents.

How Himura managed to get back to the safehouse was a mystery to all. They had all seen the house toppling all of a sudden.

And Himura wasn't coming out.

Everyone had assumed that he was dead, and Katsura was terrified. Absolutely terrified. Kenshin had been his trump card against the Shogunate, and now he'd gone and sacrificed himself for a petty son of his arms provider.

It was until Himura appeared at the Iris safehouse at around midnight, completely soaked with blood and a young boy in his hands. According to the keeper of the Iris safehouse, the hitokiri boy had just knocked on her door, greeted her with a cool and composed "please take care of the child", and had passed out on the spot.

He was down for five more days and the Ishinshishi leaders were in a frantic. Obviously Katsura didn't know that Himura was sent to the Yashiro rescuing mission; his men had overheard him yelling at Katagai and Iizuka, shouting something about his best swordsman sent for some ridiculous child- saving mission.

After that, Katsura spent half the day staying at the safehouse, and no one - no even Katagai or Iizuka - would dare go on the receiving end of his wrath.

* * *

Kenshin felt extremely dizzy.

The first thing he saw was the blurring rectangular pattern of the ceiling. He closed his eyes again. The light was too strong. He wondered what had happened to him.

His left hand went to his side, meeting the cool comforting hilt of his katana. He let out a breath. As long as his weapon was there he was going to be okay.

"Himura?" someone was calling for him. Kenshin opened his eyes tiredly.

"Kami-sama.you are finally awake." Katsura's face appeared distinctly perplexed.

"Katsura-san?" the hitokiri felt pain all over his body as he tried to pull his body up in respect. He winced slightly.

"It's alright. Don't move." Katsura said in a fatherly fashion, surveying the boy with concern and guilt mixed together. "How do you feel?"

Kenshin smiled weakly. " Arigatou. I'm alright."

He looked around the room with glazed eyes. At his right Kaitori Yashiro and Hiramei Yashiro were kneeling side by side on their cushions, eyes brimming with grateful tears. Kenshin suspected that they would be throwing themselves upon him if not for the presence of the Choshu Lord. The hitokiri boy smiled reassuringly, not without a trace of amusement.

"Kaitori-san, Hiramei-san.''

" Himura-san." both replied with suppressed emotions, bound to their seats by manners. "We're so glad you're alive." Kaitori Yoshida bowed low to him.

"It's okay, Tasuka-chan is alright." Himura began.

"Iie, it's not about Tasuka. It's about you." Kaitori intercepted, tears sliding uncontrollably down his face. "You risked yourself for Tasuka.all the while there is so much waiting for you back home.your family and friends would be so sad if they lost you. And you're so young."

Kenshin shook his head a bit sadly. Then quite abruptly his tone changed and became piercingly cold. " I have no family nor any attachments. I saved your son simply because duty abides me to do so. You are to forget that I ever existed or risk uncovering the Ishin top secret." He said, balancing himself on his arms. The Yoshidas looked sorrowfully at him. As the Ishinshishi's greatest arm provider they knew of the hitokiri boy that bore the most important burden in the whole clan.

They nodded slowly, aching to help the boy in any way possible. But with Kenshin closed off to himself the Yashiros knew all words would be in vain. Katsura, however, stayed infuriatingly silent at the left of Kenshin's futon. Apparently he was used to the boy's coolness though he too was constantly pained by the conflicting emotions Kenshin had to go through.

Silence continued for a moment until Kenshin, blinking in curiosity, looked down on the little figure curling at the side of his futon. He bent down a little, recognizing the familiar brown hair.

"Tasuka?"

Tasuka's eyes fluttered open at the mention of his name. Inclining his head slightly, he looked into the hitokiri's lavender eyes and rubbed his own.

"Samurai-nii?" A nod from Kenshin, staring at the child inquiringly.

"Tasuka, what are you doing...ouch!" His question was cut short as Tasuka jumped unexpectedly at him, knocking the boy backwards.

Kenshin bit down a colourful curse as he landed on his wounded arm, remembering Katsura's presence. He knew he looked silly, with the wind knocked out of him and Tasuka laughing cheerily, all the while sitting on him.

"Get down this instant, Tasuka," Hiramei was barely able to conceal her enjoyment as the boy hitokiri struggled to remove Tasuka off him, but failing miserable because of his reduced strength and numerous cuts and burns. Katsura actually snickered at his best fighter's clumsiness.

Tasuka was acting exactly the opposite from the mature child he was when he was facing the Shisengumi. "I won't! I won't unless you tell me your name." He pointed a chubby finger at Kenshin's nose, grinning naughtily. The redhead glanced helplessly at his superior, who merely continued sipping his tea amid amused smirks.

"You knew it already! I am Himura." Kenshin said crossly, trying vainly to wrench the boy off him. His lungs were still aching from over-inhalation of the smoke, and the brat was currently sitting on his chest, crushing his lungs. The Ishin warrior thought he was going to suffocate.

The Yashiro boy wiggled a finger in his face. "That's not your name! That's your last name, right? I was asking for your first name.

You didn't ask for it, Kenshin thought exasperatedly. "But everyone calls me Himura!" he argued. Or Himura Battousai. It's just the same isn't it?

"I don't care," Tasuka declared, crossing his arms over his chest in an adult-like yet childish way. "Giving me your last name is so unfriendly! Everyone in your family shares your last name. It's improper and impersonal to give just your last name to a friend."

Kenshin would have throttled him if his arms were not pinned under the child. "Okay, okay! I'm Kenshin. Himura Kenshin. Can you get off me now?"

Tasuka scratched his curly head. "Kenshin, heart of the sword? It's a nice name."

"Yeah, it is. Can you get off me now?"

The child nodded thoughtfully. "Who gave it to you anyway?"

Kenshin wanted to scream in exasperation. "My shishou did. Just-get-off- me!" He gave the boy a harder push. Unfortunately, the boy chose to steady himself by gripping his long ponytail.

Things were bad enough for Kenshin without Katagai choosing to come in at the moment.

"Katsura-san. Hi-Himura?" Katagai stared shocked at the disheveled hitokiri with his ponytail in a certain child's hands, and a smirk identical to Katsura's sneaked onto his face.

"Katagai-san? Would you be so kind to remove the kid currently sitting on my stomach?" Kenshin asked, fuming even more. Before Katagai could even react, the child got off Kenshin with an almighty bounce, leaving the assassin gasping for breath, the slash on his arm reopened. .

"Kids these days." Kenshin grimaced as the sleeve of his gi was stained with blood. All gaped in alarm as he pushed the sleeve backwards, revealing a bloodied bandage technically dripping with the sudden amount of blood gushing out of the wound. Waving a casual hand to calm a worried Katsura and a likewise gaping Katagai, Kenshin tore the bandage out, coolly unafraid. The Yashiros were looking at him with concern, shocked by the severe outcome of their child's innocent prank.

"It's okay kid nothing serious, the wound just reopened. Don't do that next time." The hitokiri said not unkindly, reaching into his gi for a roll of bandages. When the child gave no response, the teenage boy looked up, mildly surprised.

The next thing he knew the boy was hugging him around the waist, sobbing against his gi softly. He was stressed, the hitokiri realized. First there's the enormous fire swallowing his home up whole, then a furious scene of manslaughter; after that seeing his brother-like saviour lying motionless, deprived of any signs of living. His tolerance had met its breakdown point. Though Kenshin didn't know, the boy had refused to leave his side for a single moment, accompanying the sleeping hitokiri for five whole days.

Kenshin heart softened at once. The boy had such an intriguing character. One moment he was a thoroughly matured boy, the next second he was acting like a totally out-of-control brat. He hugged him awkwardly against himself.

"Daijoubu, Tasuka,'' he told the boy almost tenderly, " don't cry. A warrior doesn't cry, ne?" It was then he remembered the boy was no samurai like himself. He felt the little body relaxing, and smiled the shadow of a smile. Katsura and the others watched the warm scene in rapt silence. The little kid was surely extraordinary. No mere boy could achieve the feat of melting the hitokiri's cold-as-hell exterior.

Enormous charcoal eyes looked up at him, naïve and yet so beautiful. "Kenshin-nii, when I grow up I'll be a great soldier like you. I will save the world from evil people like those men who attacked us."

Kenshin chuckled almost inaudibly, releasing the boy. "I'm a hitokiri, not a soldier," he said with a tone that made Katsura look down on the tatami mat before him. His voice turned ferocious and sure. "And by the time you grow up, we will have the new era in its right place. Even if I have to pave it out of blood, I will. I entrust you to protect a world where no one will suffer." He ruffled the boy's hair, seeing the light in the boy's eyes identical to that Hiko saw in him six years ago. The light that ensures he would do justice.

"You will make a fine samurai."

As soon as the Yashiros and Tasuka had bowed themselves out, Katsura and Katagai began nagging Kenshin on risking his life on relatively minor issues.

"You know, Himura, we can't afford losing you.

"Hai, Katsura-san."

"You won't be doing that next time.

"Hai hai, Katsura-san."

"And you promised me to bring about a new era. You can't go down at this stage."

"Hai hai hai." A monotonic, flat answer.

Seeing that the boy wasn't really interested in listening to him, Katsura clucked his tongue reproachfully. Then he smiled.

"Know what, Himura, Katasugi has sent me a three thousand words long letter on 'Why major assets and child prodigies are NOT to be used for life-saving missions'. " He produced a folded paper from his gi, with words so small and dense that they were in danger of sticking to each other.

Himura blinked, trying not to look too amused. Katasugi-san is never afraid of Katsura-san, he thought, nor is he in anyway respectful to him. He shook his head. He just couldn't understand that man, anyway.

* * *

Since then, Tasuka had been tagging Kenshin all around the safehouse until he was well enough to get back to the inn. Katsura had deliberately ordered the boy to be left longer at the Iris safehouse - as there were Tasuka and the kind-but-innocent safehouse keeper there, it might be doing the hardened hitokiri lots of good. Kenshin gratefully accepted that; to him it was like going on vacation after a half-year of torturous working.

But sometimes he wished the Tasuka boy would leave him alone.

Sometimes he would wake up in the morning, slide open the shouji, and...

"KENSHIN-NII! How about teaching me how to fight? You know, can you teach me that move? The one with the three hundred sixty degrees turn and stabbing some person in the neck?"

"That's called Ryu-Son-Sen, and I don't think I'll teach Hiten..."

"So that's Ryu-Son-Sen huh? It's cool! I'll get my sword, please wait for me in the yard Kenshin-nii, and after you've shown me that move, I'm sure I won't disappoint you and I'll master it someday."

"Wait! I don't..." but Tasuka had already disappeared with heightened spirits.

Kenshin spent half his time in the Iris safehouse trying to hide from an over-enthusiastic Tasuka and thinking up excuses for not teaching him the Hiten Mitsurugi. The Yashiro kid had a way of pretending to look so hurt that Kenshin was inclined to actually teach him the Hiten techniques. Anyway, he made up by sparring with the boy, and discovered that he was exceptionally talented.

When Kenshin had to eventually return to his base at the inn, Tasuka was extremely upset (this time, genuinely). He promised to visit Kenshin at the inn, which he did; that was when his father Kaitori Yoshida something important to discuss with Katsura or Katagai. After the Battle of Toba- Fushimi, however, Kenshin had never seen Tasuka again. With all that chaos and sadness going on, Kenshin had even forgotten that such a person existed on this world.

And so time passed.

* * *

"Has it been fourteen long years?" Tasuka said, turning his head skywards.

"Yes." Kenshin smiled at him, remembering the boy that sent him into a series of major headaches, " and so our Tasuka-chan has grown up in these long years."

Charcoal eyes snapped down from the heavens. "Yes, grown up I have; I also did what I promised you to do when you left me."

"Oro?"

Tasuka chuckled at his wide-eyed naivete. "Nah, Kenshin-nii. Have you forgotten? To be the protector of the new world. To do justice to those who bring about misery. Such was my ambition and still is. Kenshin-nii had fought hard to build the new era, but he can't help it if corruption starts to gnaw the inside of this government. I, in turn - will assist him to renew the government till people can live without being suppressed."

Kenshin's eyes turned a deep violet, looking unpleased. "You are not doing justice. You're killing recklessly, like what I did as a hitokiri. It's senseless murder but not justice."

Violet gaze met unflinching night-black ones, and Tasuka shook his disapproval. "You don't understand, Kenshin-nii. Being a rurouni for so many years, you can't possibly understand how corrupt Meiji officials are nowadays. As Saitou-san here might have noted, we don't kill those who are doing their duties well. They will make fine members for my new government. Take a look at this." He handed a stack of something to Kenshin with both hands, giving him a confident wink. The former hitokiri took it seriously, flipping briefly through the pages. Tasuka used this short moment to greet Saitou properly.

"Saitou-san, sure you have noted that as well? Our 'Heavenly Justice' is nothing different than your Aku Soku Zan motto." Tasuka gave the former Shisengumi an all-too-innocent smile that suggested he had checked up on Saitou's 'Aku Soku Zan' actions thoroughly, " You should understand that we are not evil. Call us desperadoes if you want, they as well as I truly love this country. Our only concern is the welfare of this country and not our own benefits. Kenshin-nii had taught me that." He nodded to the five people behind him, expression earnest but nonetheless righteous.

The wolf found himself struck speechless. "Well, I didn't try to overthrow the government, thus landing this country into chaos." Lame reply, Saitou kicked himself mentally.

"Who told you we're going to overthrow the government?" Tasuka frowned slightly, "no no, nothing like that. We are trying to.er. rearrange certain posts. Those we found evil will be eliminated. Just like breaking rotten branches from a sakura tree. At first it may seem you're destroying the tree, but soon a stronger branch will grow in its place and soft sakura petals will grow in its place."

Saitou, again, found himself unable to reply. He was saved answering by Kenshin's interruption.

"Tasuka.h-how did you get this?"

"We have quite a connection network throughout Kyoto," Tasuka said, smiling brightly. "I just want to prove that we do not pick our victims at random. We follow them for a month, collect enough information, and take our actions."

The former hitokiri stared down at the paper on top in genuine astonishment.

**Yamagata Aritomo -Born in 1838** -Samurai of Choshu region, statesman and chief founder of the modern Japanese army, studied military science in Europe and returned in 1870 to head the war ministry

**-Meiji 11, Nov1 07:32am** Yamagata attended a meeting at the government base, Central Kyoto. He and three other military officials - Kawaji, Hagiro, and Renjida discussed the potential uproar at Osaka. 10:54am our men searched Yamagata's room for proof of corruption. Currently no discovery  
12:09pm Yamagata left the government base for a meeting with a  
representative from China

**Meiji 11, Nov2 .........**

The list went on and on, describing Yamagata's boring daily meetings and the group's further fruitless investigation on the man. Kenshin quickly skipped half the three-page long report until his eyes met the word Meiji 11, Nov 30. Underneath it was a short line of conclusion with Yoshida Tasuka's signature at the end.

" We conclude that Yamagata Aritomo is a healthy member of the Meiji government and need not be eliminated."

Seeing Kenshin's open-mouthed surprise, Saitou seized the report from his numb hand.

_You gotta get a grip on yourself, Battousai. Don't show him any of our emotions._Saitou shot his companion a meaningful stare. Kenshin, understanding it, cleared that surprised look from his face. Tasuka only smiled brighter.

This is not going good, Kenshin thought as Saitou scanned the report while others watched in satisfied silence. He's actually doing nothing seriously wrong and we have nothing to fault him with. Extreme it might be, but nonetheless effective to clear the Meiji government of parasites. Isn't that right?

He shook himself mentally, trying to find a reason for that Tasuka-is- doing-something-wrong feeling from his mind. He doesn't have the right to take lives, innocent or no. The ex-hitokiri concluded. Taking the decision of life and death in your own hands is a twisted sense of justice. Just like the child that made himself hitokiri.

"You have no right to kill, Tasuka. Evil these men might be, they do have families and friends. By killing them without further consideration, you hurt their families and all that they hold dear. It shouldn't be you who decide whether a person is fit to live or no." Kenshin said, explaining in a brotherly fashion.

Tasuka blinked, looking faintly surprised. "Kenshin-nii, I thought you love the people in this country."

"I do."

"Then why would you let them suffer by the hands of unfair laws and bullying government officials?"

".. It's not in a rurouni's place to interfere with governments and policies. I protect them by my free sword." Kenshin replied firmly, privately feeling a little uneasy.

Tasuka looked downhearted. "So you won't join me after all? I am disappointed."

"I won't, Tasuka. Thanks for asking," heart filled with complicated emotions - disappointment for the boy's unwillingness to drop his plan, worry for him that the Meiji government will try their best to eliminate the group, confusion about right and wrong, and uneasiness caused by not knowing what to do right now. The group had been nothing more than friendly to them; they couldn't just go berserk and began chopping people all of a sudden. Plus, they would be crazy to pick a two on a hundred fight.

Saitou raised his eyes from the report, his surprise mirrored the former hitokiri's. He looked questioningly at the rurouni. Making up his mind, Kenshin bowed to Tasuka. "We will take our leave now, thank you for your kind hospitality - I say the above as the representative of the government." Giving a little warmth into his voice he added, "Tasuka - be careful. I don't want a massacre between Meiji soldiers and your men here. Any casualties would be against my wish. I just hope that you can drop the idea, but obviously." he sighed, shrugging his slender shoulders.

Turning around, the ex-Ishishishi hitokiri and the ex-Shisengumi wolf began walking down the way they came. However, Tasuka seemingly wasn't ready for them to go.

"Kenshin-nii, Saitou-san. Please wait. I'm afraid you'll have to stay after all." Tasuka called out to them, smile transfixed on his face.

Kenshin spun to face him dangerously. "You're not keeping us here, are you?"

The Yashiro boy looked slightly apologetic. "Sorry but I do think so. Because shortly before you arrived, we had a bet with our dear Yamagata- san."

"And what will it be?" demanded Kenshin, placing one hand casually on the saya of his sword.

" I bet him Kenshin-nii will join us for no doubt," Tasuka said, " he - and of course agreed by various other officials - told us that if that is the case, they will let us carry out our Heavenly Justice freely." Kenshin's eyebrows jumped. That was too big a promise. He wondered if all the officials had such great confidence in him or simply Yamagata forced them to agree to it.

Saitou fancied he saw the rurouni glaring at him for one fleeting moment. He blinked. Then he remembered what he told the ex-Ishin warrior - "now those government officials are thinking you came back for revenge with a horde of those guys." But listening to what Tasuka was saying, the government officials were nothing but confident in Kenshin. He gave the redhead a well-that-is-what-I-was-told-it's-not-my-fault look, surveying the scene with his wolfish amber eyes. They were planning to make us stay all along, he mused, eyes fixing at the Juppongatana-like five warriors behind Tasuka. They were young. One of them was even woman, with a chain tied elegantly to her slim waist, acting as an obi. His eyes turned, secretly searching for a certain person in the crowd. If everything goes well it'll be alright.

Kenshin eyed Tasuka with a rather dangerous expression. "And if you lose?"

"Then we surrender without a fight. But of course, I can't afford to have that happening."

"So you'll make me stay?"

" Please understand that I have no wish to do that," Tasuka added hastily, knowing that he had offended the ex-manslayer. " I would never want to fight with Kenshin-nii in any circumstances."

"But you'll have to if I refuse to stay?"

"...hai."

" Come on then, Tasuka. Let's see how fourteen years can change a person."

Tasuka loosened his majestic black cloak and handed it to the woman with the chain. "Thanks, Nueru." The woman bobbed a little bow, blushing. Kenshin slowly unsheathed his sakabatou and faced his opponent.

"If you lose I shall invite youto stay a few days as our guest." Tasuka told the rurouni, grasping the hilt of his own katana.

"And if you lose?"

"Then I won't bother you again." Tasuka said steadily.

"Fine then. It will be our last battle." Kenshin stated, staring across at his young friend.

"After this our ways will part." Tasuka nodded, sounding rather sad.

"Let's begin."

* * *

**A/N : A relatively shorter chapter, but still it's a chapter, so don't glare at me like that. Anyway, I've got something to say to my reviewer- sama! Someone gave me a Kenshin action figure on my birthday! And some other person gave me the manga book 18-21! I am sooooooooo happy**

**Koe-760-sama: Somehow I managed to threaten you to be my beta reader cackles madly, Koe-760-sama glared at chapter: is that supposed to be English?! if there's anything wrong with the story I'll tell minna-sama to flame you instead of me (After all you're a pyro and I'm terrified of fire) There's some confusion over here about Tasuka.I'm making him seem KIND! Oh no! It isn't supposed to be that way.um.right, let him be! I don't really care. I've seen the movie once again, just to take a better look at Gentatsu before I actually put him down anywhere. I think Aizu is a province sorta thing (like Choshu) and that province supported the old government. He's a master of a certain blah blah blah style but I forgot what it is. Your CG pic is AWSOME! I'm thinking if I should have.um.making up excuse well yeah, my scanner got stuck, so it'll be a while before I can show you that pic Authoress' thought: and that while is gonna take a whole life Ken-cat! It's cute! I've got it stored up and is currently trying to stick it onto my wallpaper. (And is that your dog? It seems like a koala hanging in mid-air.) I'll talk to you about it later, let me finish up all the re- reviews first**

**Sapphire Eyes-sama: About that grammar mistakes thing.I've suddenly found out, after re-reading it all over again (I'm too lazy to do so) that there IS a very big bunch of grammar mistakes. Gomen nasai! Next time I'll try to have them corrected before posting. Anyway thanks for your support! And the spacing thing.well originally it isn't supposed to look like that, but somehow it got into that strange format when I got it posted. I'm trying to sort that out too. Anyway, arigatou for being patient with my kindergarten sort of grammar, and for reading this story!**

**Boomerang-chan-sama: Hey there B-chan-sama aka I-am-for-K&K-forever-sort-of- person-sama! Thanks for ya latest review I'm sorry for the delay. There's something ruddy wrong with the format thing and I just can't fix it veins popping on head Seems like Battousai has sailed out of the picture hasn't he? snickers I can't wait to have him back. This time I'll squeeze triple reviewers until their eyes pop to the size of an UFO! O**

**Liemtenshi-sama: blinks blinks which fighter of Shishio? No.Zenei Makimoto is an OC, there's no such person in RK. dodges flying eggs with Hiten speed and those guys are.those guys are.crazy music.GUYS! Haha, I'm not telling you. (_Sealing my sleeve)_ no peeking into a lady's sleeve. No manners! bonks liemtenshi-sama on the head. Liemtenshi-sama: oroooooo. I've never watched RK on Cartoon network. Is it suspended or what? That'll be stupid, argh! I was trying to look for it but can't find it.**

**Akima Miota-sama: Welcome to my latest chapter! I hope this is not too boring because there's some Tasuka-Kenshin WAFF here. And know what, I actually blushed when I write that! Weird, huh? Katsura's acting like a total I-don't-know-what, so. I don't know what to do with him. Strange, huh?**

**Dork-in-training-sama: Hello there! A new chapter here. I'm getting slow on the updates, Gomen**!


	5. A Brush with Time

Past and Future By Hitokiri-san  
  
Disclaimers: Have you ever thought why the Tsuikuhen and Seisouhen's characters look completely different as they are in the manga and anime? Look no further! I declare lawfully that the anime and manga are drawn by me! Really! Nobuhiro Watsuki stole it from me and...*thunder sounds. Kami- sama doesn't seem too happy about this*...Well, on with the story.  
  
Ch6 A Brush with Time  
  
To say Battousai was mad would be a great understatement.  
  
Battousai was royally pissed off.  
  
At least that was what he thought he was, until after a session of marching through most of the streets in Kyoto like some cracked person and glaring at each and every passer-by in turn that he decided he wasn't really mad.  
  
He was stressed. The short yet unforgettable encounter with Zenei Makimoto had completely stressed him out. Well, let's admit it, Zenei wasn't some dork that could be flung into space anytime he wanted. Actually Battousai was rather afraid of the man ( not that he'd ever admit it) - he couldn't sense him, he couldn't fight him, and he couldn't avoid him forever either. The man had a strange ability of tracking him down that made the hitokiri suspect if he was some sort of Zenei-magnet. Privately he thought he would rather face ten Vanguard of Justice groups than a single Zenei Makimoto. And, as he suddenly noted, Zenei wasn't alone.  
  
In his stress he had found someone to lash out on - unfortunately, it was the rurouni and Battousai was currently kicking a certain something along the way in his regret.  
  
And speaking of the Vanguard of Justice thing...did he miss something? Something really important?  
  
Lavender eyes widened to the size of saucers. A curse foul enough to wake the dead reverberated through the whole street, and the population hearing it cringed.  
  
Battousai was tearing through the streets in a second, bringing up a powerful gale wherever he went. Damn it, how could he miss it? In his stupid rage he had forgotten almost any sensible thing, imagining himself to be smacking the wanderer with various Hiten and not-so-Hiten moves. Baka baka baka baka baka!  
  
He had two choices - either going back to the house or directly head to the Vanguard group's secret hideout. He decided upon the first. Barging into the group's place alone would be far too risky. He'd just go back to where he had left the rurouni, give him a full apology, and everything would be back to normal. That was what he assumed.  
  
A high-pitched shriek woke him out of his thoughts. Wondering what in the name of Kami-sama could have happened, he snapped his eyes back into focus...  
  
And nearly collided head-on with a somebody stupid enough to get into his way. Luckily for both Battousai and the somebody, Hiko had spent year after year trying to make his baka deishi able of braking to a halt when using the Hiten's godlike speed - which he deemed almost impossible considering his baka deishi's dislike for practicing in that useless (at least that was what young Kenshin thought) field.  
  
Well, it does prove useful now, the manslayer thought idly as he halted in front of that dumbstruck person, their noses almost touching. Enormous ink- blue eyes batted. Hadn't he seen those eyes before?  
  
"Tigress-dono?"  
  
"Kentai-san!" Kaoru blinked sheepishly before she got the insult. She smiled sweetly.  
  
"If you haven't forgotten, my name is *Kamiya Kaoru*!" and Battousai found himself dodging a series of poorly aimed yet furious bokken-dealt blows as he lamented for meeting such a tiring sort of person when he was obviously in a hurry.  
  
The blows subsided finally. Kaoru was clutching her side and gasping for breath. Battousai quickly distanced himself from the crazy girl lest he got beaten by unsuspected swings.  
  
"Okay okay, Kaoru-san. What exactly do you want with me? I'm in a hurry actually."  
  
Kaoru turned serious, blushing a bit at her outburst. "Er....I was thinking, have you seen Kenshin?"  
  
"Iie." He lied. He just wished she could get out of his older self's way.  
  
"Why don't I believe you?" Kaoru asked, blue eyes burning into his.  
  
This girl is sure persistent, isn't she? Battousai sighed. "He's currently out with some girl and wants you out of the way so he could have some fun. Is that answer acceptable? Now, Kaoru-san, excuse me but I must go." He winced at his own rudeness; but he was in a foul enough mood without having to deal with the girl.  
  
Instead of going berserk and having another round at Battousai like he'd expected her to, Kaoru fell silent and looked down. Battousai felt suddenly sorry. He himself might not like the girl, but to the rurouni it was a different thing. He should have been kinder to her...  
  
"Listen, Kaoru-san, I was only joking - "  
  
Kaoru looked up with a very business-like glow in her eyes, waving an impatient hand. "Of course you were joking. If you were *not* - well then, you won't be having a brother any longer. Answer me, is Kenshin up to something?"  
  
//That threat was creepy // the hitokiri thought, taking the line a bit too seriously. "Oh no, he isn't up to anything. I...uh...got lost and is looking for him now." What a fine lie. Battousai had always known he was the worst liar ever born on this world.  
  
Kaoru looked at him pleadingly. "Please, I just want to see him. Even if he's up to anything, I won't get into his way. It's just so disturbing with Kenshin bearing all the responsibilities himself. Kentai-san, I ask of you. Please..." She bowed low to him, eyes brimming with tears.  
  
"Yare yare," Battousai put a hand to his forehead and closed his eyes. Women could never fail to get on his nerve. Someday he'd have to learn how to deal with it when a woman asks him for a favour. "Okay, if you'll follow me I'd bring you to him. But promise me one thing - get outta our way when we're working."  
  
// Too easy. One thing similar between Kenshin and Kentai - they're both too soft. // Kaoru smiled happily, bobbing a little energetic bow. Shaking his head, Battousai grasped her around the wrist and started running along with breakneck speed. The tanuki girl had to keep herself from screaming as Battousai dodged pedestrians abruptly, jumped cleanly over passing carriages, and skidded over hairpin turns so fast that she thought her arm would fall off.  
  
"Right. We're there." Battousai stopped suddenly at the entrance of the neat little house, panting slightly from the long run. Kaoru was doubled over behind him, wheezing loudly. He threw her a sideways glance.  
  
"Weak, aren't you?" he muttered under his breath, entering the house quietly. Cursing the boy under her breath Kaoru followed, still bending over from the roller-coaster ride she got.  
  
Something wasn't right. The house sounded far too silent. Battousai felt his breath stuck in his throat. // Dammit, have they left me behind? I'll kick both their ass if they do! // he thought fiercely, casting his ki around the house.  
  
Kaoru was leaning on the doorframe gulping some much-needed breath. What did the boy think he was, a human hurricane? She pondered about the necessity of jumping over carriages and flying over rooftops. Maybe the boy was just making fun of her, damn him. If she hadn't a favour to ask him he would be dead by now.  
  
"Kentai-san?"  
  
"Silence!" the boy froze, shielding her with an outstretched hand.  
  
"Kenshin's here! Right at the second floor. C'mon." Battousai said, relieved. He had feared so much that it was a hostile ki....if he was truthful with himself he would know that he was indeed afraid that he would sense Zenei lurking in the second floor.  
  
Sensing Kenshin's ki instead, the hitokiri boy literally leaped up the staircase, eager to join his older counterpart. He slammed the shouji aside.  
  
"Ken...nii-chan! I'm glad you haven't left. The badass wolf is late huh? I...." Words died in his mouth as he gasped, paralyzing in the doorway.  
  
Zenei Makimoto turned to look at him, his squad of twenty men standing in a tight circle around the door.  
  
"I know you would be attracted to come up here if you think you have sensed your future self."  
  
"You! Zenei...how...it should be Kenshin standing here...." the hitokiri gaped, terrified.  
  
"I copied his ki, Himura. I let you sense this ki on purpose. As for we, we never have any ki." Zenei told him, smiling in a horrifying sort of way.  
  
"That's not true! Any living thing has a ki. You can't just shift your ki to someone else's at your own will. What have you done to Kenshin!" Battousai bellowed, losing his typical hitokiri coolness.  
  
"Ah, innocent people. Have I ever told you that we are living things?" Zenei said, a thread of compassion in his voice.  
  
"WHAT?"  
  
"Let me tell you. We are neither living nor dead. Our form has surpassed this cycle long ago. For us, existence need not be bound by simple life-and- death boundaries. That is, life and living have definitely no meaning to us. We are never human. We are Time."  
  
"Time?" Battousai asked blankly.  
  
"Do you really have to know?" Zenei asked a bit impatiently, then resigned with a little sigh. "No matter. I will clear your memory eventually anyway, so I guess it won't hurt telling you this."  
  
"As you've already known, we are Time. We control time, run it, and prevent error from getting into its way. By some mistake, the time turner breaks loose from where it was stored. It has neither form nor shape, so it was damned difficult to find the thing out. A single time-turner in a billion worth of years." He snorted, clearly thinking the idea insane. "However, the time turner has one property. It sticks to the first object it can get hold to and transfer its power to it. Anyone unlucky enough to touch it - that's you - would be going on a havoc time journey to various stages of your life. They stick here forever if we don't go to their help. No...actually not forever. They mess up the whole time system. There are usually two outcomes. First, the past is changed and the future overwritten. That is, the future self vanishes completely. Second, the damage done in the past is not severe enough to actually impair the future. It ends up like a multi-ending story or something - that is, time splits and another time zone with the new outcome appears out of nowhere. One more time zone for us to work on, actually. But the second chance has a really minor percentage of happening. Especially considering you - you're a main character responsible for the Meiji restoration, I believe?"  
  
Zenei turned to a dumbstruck Battousai. His amethyst eyes were a bit glazed over, but he was catching on. Well, not a small feat to be achieved by a mere human, Zenei nodded his approval.  
  
"To avoid complications, we assume that all cases will end up in the first outcome - that is, the future will be overwritten. We seek out all victims affected, erase their memories, and send them back to their rightful time. One problem is that, we can't erase the future self's memory. Don't ask me why, that's some technical problem we're facing." Zenei added as Battousai opened his mouth questioningly. "It's bad enough that he knew his past has come to this era, but your future self must not know of us."  
  
"Iie, I wasn't going to ask why," Battousai said, forgetting his fear temporarily, "I was realizing why you withdrawn that night when the rurouni came out to look for me."  
  
"That's right. He can't possibly know of our existence," the raven-haired man said. "Anyway, most of these victims are only too willing to cooperate with us. They want to return life to normal. You - however - is a pain-in- the-ass obviously. However, things aren't going to change. You're going back - like it or no. You'd better go, Himura, unless you want your future self and this whole Meiji world to disappear."  
  
The redheaded boy felt cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. That was a difficult choice. While he enjoyed living in the Meiji era so much he had no wish to risk his other self's life. But it was the same, right? He was cornered. It didn't really depend on his choice - Zenei would make sure he got back to the Bakumatsu *and* forgot everything. Instinctively he backed away from the man, stepping on someone's foot.  
  
"Kaoru-san!" he had totally forgotten that Kaoru was also there.  
  
Kaoru looked very pale, but her voice was reasonably composed. "Ken-Kentai- san. Please tell me, what are you?"  
  
"I..." Battousai was at a loss for words. He knew it would sound rather farfetched to tell her the truth. Some things were best kept unknown, he decided. However, Kaoru wasn't a fool. The previous story wouldn't exactly work against her this time.  
  
"You won't understand what I am," the boy sighed.  
  
There was some uneasy stirring in Zenei's squad. "Who is this woman?" Zenei asked, sounding dangerous. Battousai instinctively stood in front of the tanuki girl.  
  
"She is irrelevant. Let her go." Battousai said, sensing the sign of danger.  
  
The man narrowed his eyes, not waiting for an answer, "Kamiya Kaoru, your future self's lover. I'm sorry, but she cannot go after she learns about Time."  
  
"You cannot eliminate her! You'll....as you've said before, you'll alter history. I will give you the time turner, but *please*..." Battousai felt helpless. His Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu was practically useless against Zenei or his companions. If it were any other people he would have slashed his way out instead of wasting his breath on pleading.  
  
"I believe she'll alter history, but it was only in a minor way. She does not make as much difference as you do. But, Himura, we aren't killing her. We are only offering her a new life - without death. She will only lose her memory and blend in another world as a new person." Zenei said slowly.  
  
"What - what are you talking about?" Kaoru said, her voice shaking.  
  
The assassin unsheathed his katana. "Kaoru-san, get out of here!" // You won't be killing her, but you'll be as good as killing the rurouni. What should he do without her? I will protect her for the rurouni's sake. //  
  
"Dare you move a hair on her head, you will have to look for the time turner yourself. Let her go, and I'll hand it to you personally. What about that?" In the corner of his eyes he saw that Kaoru was still standing behind him. Stupid woman.  
  
"Are you threatening me, Himura?"  
  
"I surely am." Was Battousai's gruff reply. He gave Kaoru a shove. This time she took the hint and started darting down the stairs. The girl apparently knew that without her shinai and in her kimono she was being nothing more than a hindrance. Of course, being in her training outfit and *with* her shinai wouldn't change the fact that she would be a hindrance.  
  
Zenei watched leisurely as the girl departed.  
  
"Regrettably, we normally do not accept threats."  
  
*~*  
  
Kenshin watched Tasuka with a concentrated stare. He had no idea what style the boy would use. Tasuka in turn smiled in quite a smug way. He was much too familiar with his Kenshin-nii's Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu. The two fighters turned slowly clockwise, katanas raised at shoulder level.  
  
"Here, Kenshin-nii." Tasuka said, launching into the air. Kenshin's eyes widened slightly - wasn't it the stance for Ryu Tsui Sen? //Don't tell me he's using the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu...//  
  
Shaking the suspicion away, he met the move with a matching Ryu Son Sen. Tasuka grinned suddenly. Under the faint glow of the crossing swords his grin looked purely evil.  
  
"Argh!" the ex-Battousai cried out as a blade cut across his left forearm. Sidestepping out of the way, he flung Tasuka off. The brown-haired boy landed cleanly at his side; Kenshin noticed that he had drawn his wakizashi while their katanas touched. Clever move.  
  
Gripping his injured shoulder Kenshin nodded grimly. "I see. An imitation of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu. You caught me off guard." He is good, he thought. He made use of the Hiten moves to invent his own original moves. I wasn't wrong back then - Tasuka would make a fine samurai. His spirit is valiant and he is clever beyond measure.  
  
But when this cleverness is used in the wrong way...  
  
The Yashiro boy cocked his head. "You aren't in a good state, Kenshin-nii. You've been injured recently?"  
  
The former Ishinshishi was impressed. "Aa. Demo..." he gripped the sakabatou horizontally in front of his face. "I will still fight you."  
  
Tasuka was too much experienced with the older samurai's tolerance with pain. He knew it, and Kenshin probably knew it too - his last move would have taken the redhead's arm off if Tasuka hadn't withdrawn the blade at the last moment. But then, Kenshin was also holding back with that Ryu Son Sen. Saitou surveyed the fight silently, and cursed Kenshin again for the millionth time in his life - some day his kindness was really going to be the death of him.  
  
The younger samurai sheathed his wakizashi once more, the katana leveling his chest. Himura looked intently at the tip of his glimmering silver blade. Tasuka was fast, cool, powerful - and yet...  
  
The sakabatou arched through the air in a wide circle. This was an experience, the violet-eyed samurai thought. He might not be right, but then successes do rely on experimenting, don't they?  
  
Puzzled charcoal eyes glanced at the whirlpool of silver light, and the man leaped out of its way just in time. "What was that?"  
  
Kenshin looked a bit sly. It seemed that he was right, wasn't he? Tasuka *was* fast, cool, powerful and all that - *but* Kenshin quickly noticed two things in which the boy was lacking. First - his moves and reaction to moves relied too much on the Hiten's side. He therefore tested the boy with a non-Hiten technique. The result was obvious; the former hitokiri was greeted with a confused "what was that", meaning the boy hadn't too much experience on dealing with non-Hiten Mitsurugi techniques.  
  
The second thing was on the boy's Hiten-imitating moves. The Hiten Mitsurugi was probably the strongest style there was; yet Tasuka's original moves weren't polished and replenished for hundreds of years as the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu had been. After all, the creation of an invincible sword style could not be accomplished by one single man; generation after generation of editing and refining was vital. In addition, Tasuka knew most Hiten moves only due to his photographic memory. He had watched as the former Ishin warrior practiced, memorized the forms; and came out with a new style years later. Never having learnt them in earnest, there was something still lacking in his stances, though noticeable to only the best fighters there were. Unfortunately, if Himura Kenshin and Saitou Hajime weren't counted in that caliber there would be no one else in it.  
  
The wolf must have noticed that as well, Kenshin thought distractedly as he glimpsed at the lanky policeman. Sure enough, the ex-Shisengumi was holding a small smile on his lips - which made him all the more menacing than usual. Why can't he ever smile in a human way, Kenshin scowled slightly.  
  
Tasuka stared at the pair of them. With an identically sly smile on their faces they looked pretty insane. "Here I come again," he muttered as he swung his katana in a way that looked suspiciously like Ryu Kan Sen. Resisting the urge to block with a Hiten technique, Kenshin turned his blade sideward. He knew he would look dumb, but that was the only thing he could do without using his own Hiten techniques.  
  
"Gatotsu." An amused voice came from his side. Dammit, he was damned sure the wolf would laugh his head off. And he did - internally. On the outside he just smirked wider and crossed his legs.  
  
The ex-hitokiri felt his cheeks burning; he'd just realized that his stance must look absolutely sloppy in front of this Gatotsu master. He averted his eyes from the snickering policeman, an image of Saitou Ryu Tsui Sen-ing some people gliding involuntarily through his mind. What did he expect, he was a master of the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu, not Gatotsu - if he had any other choice he would gladly choose the other regardless of the difficulties. At least this would have saved him the humiliation of giving Saitou something to taunt him about. Gatotsu was possibly the technique he had seen most in his life, although .... he'd never thought that this would come in useful one day.  
  
Although Saitou found the situation entertaining a part of him was gaping at Kenshin's brilliance. His stance was perfect though awkward with the lack of practice. Battousai must have learnt a lot throughout all our encounters, he mused. It was of no coincidence that Battousai became the best swordsman in the Ishinshishi. He saw those amethyst eyes looking in his way and smirked. No way was he going to give the rurouni the satisfaction of seeing him gape. Let's see how your Lishiki goes, Battousai.  
  
Kenshin was still blushing as he went with the Lishiki as Saitou had guessed. It looked easy when Saitou did it, but to Kenshin it seemed so unnatural to have your blade turned horizontal while charging. Why didn't he just Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki the boy and get this done with? That would be much easier. He secretly understood why. He had no intention of hurting Tasuka - the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki was way too powerful. Any other moves - except Kuzu Ryu Sen - would be recognized. He seriously regretted allowing Tasuka watch him practice when both of them were no more than children.  
  
//What is this supposed to be? // Tasuka was doubtless that if it ever comes to a fight, his Kenshin-nii would use his Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu. It seemed now that all his time spent on revising those Hiten techniques had been wasted. He sidestepped, not quite knowing what to do. At this moment the Miburo's eyes sparkled with sudden realization. "That is sly."  
  
Tasuka was partly digesting Saitou's words as he, too, came to an abrupt realization. As Kenshin braked to a halt cleanly in front of him, the boy became conscious that there was actually no need to dodge his ferocious- looking Lishiki. The former hitokiri had not applied any of his power on the move. Then it must be...Tasuka swerved around, readying to block the following fatal blow.  
  
Too late.  
  
"Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu - KUZU RYU SEN!" the horizontal thrust flipped to nine hyper-speed slashes; Kenshin seemed nothing but murderous. The ex- Shisengumi could not understand the look, however - it was fairly untypical of Kenshin to be angered in a fight as the rurouni had a frustratingly slow fuse. Deprived of the ruthless pride that most samurai had in their skills and identity, the only efficient way to irritate the man was through threatening his friends. Most of his enemies - ranging from Jinei to himself - had realized that sooner or later. The wolf shook his head. This would be solved afterwards. On with the show.  
  
Tasuka was completely caught off guard. Despite his effort to block the man still got the full blast of the formidable move - the last thrust on the chest sent him flying backwards, landing on the carpet with a soft thud. Seeing their leader fall, Tasuka's five closest warriors ran down the steps in unison, weapons out and pointing at the offending rurouni.  
  
Saitou Hajime shook his head. "Still holding back aren't you? Someday..."  
  
"It would be the death of me, yeah." Kenshin intercepted with a bored voice, the killer expression gone in an instant. Ignoring his potential attackers, he walked over to where Tasuka had fallen and offered him a hand.  
  
To everyone but Kenshin's surprise, Yashiro took it, looking genuinely good-natured.  
  
"After all these years you're still better than me, huh, Kenshin-nii?"  
  
"And after all those years your heart is pure as before, Tasuka-chan." Himura smiled back, a sense of understanding passing between them. Serene violet stared into thoughtful blackness.  
  
Tasuka gave a detached wave, and the five warriors backed away. Kenshin tilted his head slightly. " What was that feeling you have when you took my last move?"  
  
Tasuka closed his eyes. He thought Kenshin was going to kill him - for one heart-stopping second the normally gentle rurouni's eyes had gleamed amber, promising nothing but instant death. He shuddered at the thought. "I...I think I was scared. Scared of dying." This was half of the truth. In that second - a ridiculously long one - he found himself thinking of his deceased parents. Of his childhood spent in chaos, yet so much better than what he had gone through since the new era...  
  
Kenshin nodded at the answer, understanding both told and untold. "This - is what your victims think of in their last moments. Corrupt and twisted they may be, but they are men, Tasuka. They're as much bone and flesh as you and I are."  
  
The Yashiro boy blinked, doubt swirling in his jet-black eyes.  
  
//Is.is that what they think in their last moments? About their families and friends? Not money or bribing or any black dealings they have? //  
  
Doubt spreads through him as he relived the experience once more. He was afraid. He *was*. And yet...  
  
// Have I been wrong all long? //  
  
A/U: Gomen, I know this chapter royally sucks. Please bear with me, my head is sorta blocked and I just can't write properly .. I was expecting your mail but it never came. So I guess I'll send you one right now! I'n writing Kaoru like a jerk! Geez! I ain't exactly a Kaoru fan but actually I'm fine with both Kaoru and Tomoe. They both play important roles in Kenshin's life, but Kami-sama knows I just can't write romance properly (Well what romance d'you think a 15-year-old girl has) Anyway, I'm looking forward to hear from you soon! I've downloaded AIM but you're always offline *nods sadly, smirks internally* Are you off with your school yet? I hope you are. Then we can have a long long holiday, ne? ^^  
  
Boomerang-chan-sama: Whao thanks for the birthday present! You know it's the best I can have! *runs around like a maniac* kuso, Tasuka's a jerk in this chap! He's just "oh! I was wrong all these years!" and turned good or something. *sweatdrops* and Kenshin Gatotsu-ing? I must be delirious ~ I just can't get Battousai outta where he is! *cold sweat and tension marks flies all around my head*  
  
Liemtenshi-sama: Mou! You don't set off fireworks in my home! *stares at a pile of ashes that was once my home* oh well..I think I'm gonna kill you ~ *White-wigged fatties strode across the ashes and starts ambushing me with something called Copyright Ordinance* I didn't do it! My reviewer does! Ask that guy here..*Liemtenshi-sama blinks innocently, fatties refuse to listen to my truthful confession* this is my best birthday ever..*eyes swirling with amber* Well, this is half a Battousai chap! * Glares at all potential protesters* What? I should have given the whole chapter to him? Oro! I don't know why, someday the idea just popped into my head that I need some time device. And that Shishio guy is called Usui ^^ Zenei is just a someone popping out from nowhere. RK is still on? *blinks incredulously* I thought they've killed it. Thanks for telling me it! I dunno why, but one fateful day on my birthday the chapter makes a lifelong decision to appear in the right format! *sighs helplessly*  
  
Sapphire-eyes-sama: Hi here! I've fixed all the little outer-space signs out there - for some reason they've been battling with me for days, then just suddenly decide to be all right again -__- can't control them, they're tame as Saitou..anyway I hope you've enjoyed the story! See ya again in next chapter. *Bows happily* A beauty?! Arigatou so that! I appreciate your reviews so much.  
  
Akira Miota-sama: Yeah I'm just thinking this chapter sucks..I hope you don't mind it, that you don't, if there's any suggestion or something please just email me.  
  
ChocolateEclar-sama: Do you like chocolate eclar? I luv it!(stupid question, why name yourself chocolate eclar when you don't like it?) It's tasty! Thanks for reading this unworthy story! I hope to see you soon ^_^  
  
Are-en-sama: When I first wrote the story it was only a flicker of inspiration, but somehow I can't stop it - same goes for my Chinesse story, I've been writing it for half a year since! Stupid rambling of a little girl..please leave a review when you have time! Always cheer me up when I'm down or, more possibly, just bored. Summer holidays are peaceful for me and there is so much time to write!  
  
LittoGrrlStephie-sama: Thanks for the review! I'm impressed with this called a great story..I've thought it sucks! I'll be waiting for your next comment!  
  
Lilfrozenfire-sama: Arigatou for the nice comment! K&K moments? *froze temporarily* I do hope I can write romance well! It usually sucks because I have no idea how romance goes (what d'you expecting from a 15-year-old little girl anyway?) But I'll try! Kaoru's currently stuck with Battousai and he dislikes her...things'll be rough for poor rurouni..And, actually my place is once a British colony and my school was run by some Catholic sisters so except Chinese and Chinese History all subjects are taught in English. I write most my assignments in English..it's probably even better than my Chinese when it's paperwork ^^  
  
Dork-in-training-sama: hullo there a new chapter's out. And miraculously FF.net has freed me of little extraterrestrial signs so I can post the story properly. Have a good day! 


	6. Our problems, solved and beginning anew

Past and Future By Hitokiri-san (hitorkiri_battousai_ishinshishi@yahoo.com.hk)  
  
Disclaimers: Lawyers-sama, for disclaimers please see last chapter. Or the chapter before that. Or even the chapter yet before that. Or then the chapter before that chapter. You will see that suing me will win you more money than a lottery ever will. Literally. Until I start suing you back and you know that I'm a lawyer from Oxford =^.^=  
  
Lawyer from Harvard: This little kid said that she's a  
lawyer from Oxford? (I heard from someone she's in Grade  
9)  
  
Lawyer from Cambridge: Let's sue her.  
  
Authoress: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...  
  
*Please enjoy the story while Authoress  
continues sparring and swearing and suing with  
lawyers-sama*  
  
Ch 7 Our problems, solved and beginning anew  
  
Battousai stared at Zenei with slitted amber eyes. Zenei regarded him with his own silvery ones.  
  
Both blinked.  
  
"Well, that's it, Himura. The girl's gone. Now out with the time turner." Zenei said finally.  
  
Battousai lowered his katana, looking at the man with such genuine innocence that might have deceived a newborn. "I thought you said you don't accept threats."  
  
"Fine! I do. Out-with-the-time-turner!" Zenei snapped impatiently, feeling humiliated.  
  
The hitokiri cocked his head, smiling in an adoring little-boyish way. "Out with what?"  
  
The man growled dangerously. "So, I take it that you are backing on your words?"  
  
"So what if I am."  
  
"You think we can't torture it out of you?" Zenei said savagely, trying to conceal his anger.  
  
The boy recoiled inwardly. He had gone too far. Thinking up an impromptu plan, he sighed with as much pain in his voice as he could force in. "Alright. I'll give it to you."  
  
"Where?" Zenei demanded shortly.  
  
Battousai pointed to a random calligraphy roll hanging on the wall. "This is it. Please - leave Kaoru-san alone as you have promised."  
  
The black-haired man thought for a moment, reaching for the calligraphy roll. "That will be against our rules, but as I've promised...what choice do I have?"  
  
His fingers touched the smooth paper of the roll. Just upon the touch Zenei sensed that something was wrong. There was no power stored inside the object. He felt for the familiar sensation of the aura emitted by the time turner.  
  
There was none. //Masaka...//  
  
"HIMURA!" Zenei aka Time turned around just in time to see Battousai diving behind the shouji. His men were all firing at the boy with their willpowers, but evidently the sudden twist of events had caught them unawares. Most shots ended up striking on the shouji, blasting it into particles. Blanching, the hitokiri boy zipped down the stairs. If he was standing in place of the shouji...well....  
  
"Come back here! This world will soon disappear if you keep this up, dammit!" Zenei's shout was audible even in the thunderous noise created by twenty-one pairs of feet sprinting down the stairs. Of course, Battousai ignored him as always, knowing it was but an empty threat.  
  
He didn't bother to open the front door; katana winking the Hiten samurai had all the complicated locks cut into halves. As for the gates, the boy leaped right over it, twirling to avoid immediate collision with a thin crowd congregated right behind the gate. Shouts and gasps followed him as he turned into an abandoned alley. Obviously he'd been mistaken for a burglar or something by the way he flew over the gate.  
  
Knowing he couldn't sense Zenei, Battousai peeked out of the mouth of the alley. He was rather surprised that they weren't chasing him from behind; then he understood and rolled his eyes. // They can't go running around the street and showing themselves to everyone. The last time was okay because they didn't think I would refuse to cooperate - it was just a matter of take-and-go to them. But this time....They already *knew* what my reaction would be if they came chasing for me. I would choose the noisiest markets and main streets to run through, just to make sure everyone sees them. Oh, that would cause so much attention. //  
  
Acknowledging this, the hitokiri quickly retreated out of the alley. He would be safe as long as he was accompanied by a big crowd. One thing that made Battousai the deadliest assassin throughout Japan was that the boy could keep his wits with him through any occasions. For Zenei Makimoto, the simple matter of getting something from the hitokiri could cost a head- splitting headache if the kid had made up his mind *not* to hand it over.  
  
The afternoon sun was blazing down Kyoto. Most people were out for their activities, so for the hitokiri it was only a matter of blending into the crowd, something he was tremendously good at. He scanned the crowds again - no trace of any suspicious characters. He smiled. Now he would be joining his older counterpart for the mission. Afterwards he would inform him about Zenei Makimoto - and see what his reaction would be. If the rurouni agreed that he should go back to the Bakumatsu.then, what choice did he have? Maybe if his memory of being in the future was erased it would be less painful for him to survive the chaotic days of the Bakumatsu.  
  
His mouth thinned into a line. He would hand the choice of his destiny to the rurouni. After all, the wanderer was the only one who could understand him thoroughly. Whatever he would choose would be the best choice of all.  
  
Having decided this, he quickened his pace. Besides the mission, there was something nagging at his mind. It was the same feeling when he had forgotten about the Vanguard of Justice. Something equally important....  
  
*Kaoru-san*.  
  
Where had she ran off to? He didn't even tell her the position of the warehouse Kenshin was currently in. He would have to find her and get her out of trouble.  
  
Saying it was easy. Doing it was another thing.  
  
The crowd moved like a river with a terrifying current. Though any size of current wouldn't be sufficient to push the hardened Battousai around, finding a drop of water in a river of men couldn't have been harder.  
  
He sighed. He was losing time here, when the rurouni and his sidekick crazy wolf were dealing with those weird guys. So much for today; he'll have to get the girl later.  
  
The boy fastened to a jog as his mind rotated around various different things at once. Mainly, most of them had something to do with Zenei Makimoto. He cursed the man for the god-knows-how-many times in his life. To say Zenei was a haunting ghost would be more than appropriate. Battousai knew he would give anything to get Zenei off his back.  
  
No luck currently.  
  
The hitokiri boy jumped vertically towards the sky as the subject of his reflection tugged at his sleeves. Battousai cursed himself in turn. He was *just too careless* to let the raven-haired man get at him again like that. Knowing better than to struggle, he obediently turned around, and...  
  
"ORO!?! Ti - I mean Kaoru-san? You-don't-go-scaring-me-like-that!"  
  
Kaoru looked at him with frantic blue eyes, her beautiful face pale. "Kentai-san...what happened? Is Kenshin okay? I mean..." she shook away the tears brimming at her eyes, determined not to be weak. " I need to see Kenshin." She felt so alone, so unsafe to be separated from Kenshin for days. A sob caught at her throat; she wanted to see him more than anything.  
  
Battousai felt a pang of sympathy seeping into his heart, something he didn't think he possessed as a hitokiri. "Hush, Kaoru-san. I will bring you to him this time. I promise, huh? Please don't cry." He wasn't too used to feeling helpless, standing there like a useless idiot. Kaoru stared up at him; in her blurry vision Battousai seemed to transform into her smiling rurouni, ready to comfort her in any circumstances...  
  
Without a warning she threw herself onto his shoulder and cried her heart out. For a while Battousai felt even more helpless. Gently he pried her off his shoulder, holding her at arm's length. "I told you not to cry, haven't I? If you have decided you would be a crybaby then get outta my sight now." Battousai stated, his soft tone belying the tough sentence. Kaoru straightened her slender frame; wiping her eyes frantically she stared up again with defiant sapphire ones.  
  
"Hai, Kentai-san." Battousai was rather taken aback to see a determined smile on her tear-streaked face. Such a strong-willed girl; though lacking in power her will was nothing less than any samurai.  
  
//Now I guess I know the reason why the rurouni fell for you, Tigress-dono. //  
  
*~*  
  
He knew it; the boy needed time.  
  
No matter, everyone needs time to think things over. Aoshi did. Soujiro did.  
  
So did Tasuka. And his men.  
  
So the rurouni just stood there smiling, as comfortable as if he was in the Kamiya dojo. And Saitou just frowned and lighted up another cigarette.  
  
Tasuka bit his lower lip until it had drawn blood. He didn't care. His eyes met the rurouni's once again, demanding for an answer.  
  
// You may pretend to be lighthearted and immovable about killing, but I know better. After all, I was a hitokiri too. I saw it in your eyes - doubt, deftly concealed. Like me, you've noticed the brutal difference between ideals and reality. Killing damages the soul. I know it.  
  
You know it too.  
  
You said you want me to help your assassinations. It isn't the truth, I know. You were looking for me for an answer. Someone with a similar experience, to tell you what to do. You are still that pure child I know from the past, wanting me to offer you an answer.  
  
But then, you can't turn back. You called them to you, with a promise of creating a better world. You motivated them to kill. They did, and so did you. You can't give them up just because you suddenly realized how much of a joke your so-called ideal is. I did too. I realized it after Tomoe appeared.  
  
Me too, I couldn't give it up.  
  
I kept this up until the new era dawned. Nothing has changed. *This* is what I have to atone for, and is atoning for.  
  
But you are different. You know my story. You can avoid this from happening again. You can stop history from repeating itself.  
  
Please, Tasuka. Surrender now. Don't shed more blood than your heart wishes to.  
  
*Please*..... //  
  
Others waited anxiously as the two characters stood motionless in the center of the hall, not even blinking. They looked as though they were caught in a staring contest, Tasuka and Kenshin; neither had the intention of moving even the slightest bit from where they were standing. The men from Tasuka's side were looking rather somber - with the knowledge that their leader was no match for the strange flame-haired many were unsure what to do. Moreover, they were even more unsure of what Tasuka would do.  
  
So they just continued waiting, with occasional glares at the all-too- placid looking wolf just to express their anxiety. Saitou ignored them in turn, waiting patiently for the drama yet to be developed.  
  
Tasuka's heart shook at what those expressive violet eyes told him. So, he knew. Finally, there was an answer to be told.  
  
He knew the rurouni was right - ironic wasn't it, that his Kenshin nii-chan understood him more than he himself did.  
  
Ironic indeed.  
  
"No, I can't." was the only sentence that the Yashiro boy uttered after standing here for half a century.  
  
Kenshin creased his brow into a light frown. "Why?"  
  
"I can't betray them. they gave up their lives to follow me as assassins. Just for an ideal, and a good one that all off us here - including Saitou- san - possesses. " Here he gave a snicker. Saitou leered at him, narrowing his eyes. " Because of *me* they are pinpointed as enemies of the Meiji government; rebels. *I* have to take the responsibilities for their loss. Their lives will be nil if they follow me into the dark cells of Kyoto. For this reason."  
  
"I can't surrender." Tasuka concluded finally. Kenshin sighed, looking a bit downcast. // I don't want to put you in cell either; you're so young. // It seemed like Saitou was right about it; his "pretty words" were useless now. The conversation was going back to the beginning as it turned out to be; after all those talking nothing had changed.  
  
Tasuka held his handsome features in an apologetic expression. "Thanks for all the trouble, Kenshin-nii. Now I understand this better, even though..." he extended a hand for Kenshin to shake. "Arigatou, Kenshin-nii."  
  
Kenshin lowered his head, shaggy bangs hiding his eyes out of view. "If there is anything I can do for you."  
  
Tasuka tilted his head. "I'll ask for sure. You're like a brother to me."  
  
Himura smiled at this. "How is Kaitori-san and Hiramei-dono, anyway? Are they well?"  
  
It was Tasuka's turn to lower his head. "They....they were killed by the Meiji government four years after the new era is established. For secrecy."  
  
"Oh," was all Kenshin could say. Seeing Kenshin's shocked expression, the Yashiro boy almost smirked. "Daijoubu, Kenshin-nii. I don't live for revenge. It's just."  
  
"I understand."  
  
The Miburo knew it was over. Without waiting for Kenshin, he strode his way down the hall, not really looking disturbed. In fact, the ex-Ishinshishi noted, he looked quite pleased. Maybe the evil wolf was enjoying the fact that another group of people was following his Aku Soku Zan motto.  
  
"You look as if you've just attended a party." Kenshin remarked, glancing at the lanky man.  
  
"I don't enjoy parties."  
  
"That's not my point."  
  
"I know what your point is," Saitou returned, not even watching the steps ahead of him. "But as a simple policeman I have done my job. No reason to press on to it isn't it? Assassinations are something different from blackmailing or kidnapping. " A shadow of an arrogant grin played on his lips.  
  
"Yeah, simple policeman. Definitely innocent." Kenshin said sarcastically.  
  
"As innocent as a certain rurouni I know," the wolf returned calmly.  
  
" At least this rurouni doesn't...wait, you said blackmailing?" Kenshin stopped dead at the foot of the greatly elaborated stairs.  
  
"What?" Saitou demanded.  
  
Without replying the rurouni had spun around to face the Yashiro boy standing at the top edge of the stairs.  
  
"Tasuka, I've got an idea! Why don't you try blackmailing?"  
  
A hundred pairs of eyes blinked. "What?"  
  
Kenshin turned a bit pink at his sudden outburst; needless to be said no one really understood what he was saying. He cleared his throat, trying to get his thoughts into a piece.  
  
"I mean, you can actually threaten those rotten Meiji officials instead of killing them in earnest. Say, you give them a letter saying you'll kill them if they won't change their evil ways, give them a time limit, and tell them they won't be reporting to the police or you'll have their heads off. Wouldn't that work better?" Kenshin finished in one whole breath.  
  
Jaws dropped. Seemed like no one had ever thought of this before. Tasuka was in a daze; that was damned simple, yet nonetheless effective. "Demo - we won't know if they've reported to the police or not. And what if they continued their ways?"  
  
"Oh, *he* would know," Kenshin said cheerfully, pointing at Saitou. "I don't think he'd mind giving you a little information once in a while do you Saitou? You can always give them a good beating, by the way." The rurouni said savagely, a little gold specks swirling in the violet-blue eyes. The Mibu wolf wondered for a moment if he'd snapped. The rurouni, talking about beating people up?  
  
Then Saitou Hajime might as well take a non-killing vow.  
  
"Don't you drag me in, Battousai," Saitou Hajime told the now grinning rurouni grudgingly. "And mind that, you're currently planning blackmails before a police officer."  
  
Kenshin looked at him with over-innocent eyes. "Oro?"  
  
" You know better than playing innocent with me, Battousai, so cut it off," the former Shisengumi snapped. Rubbing his chin he finally said, " well, I suppose I haven't heard anything in the last few minutes. Yashiro-san gave his word that there won't be any more assassinations in the future. This simple policeman may as well get going." He walked a few steps, then turning around.  
  
"As for future blackmailing, this isn't mentioned in my job description, ne?"  
  
Tasuka sighed, not knowing how to react. He watched adoringly as the two men made their way out of the hall, not turning back.  
  
// Kenshin-nii...Saitou-san... you will continue protecting this world and its people, won't you?  
  
So will I.  
  
In a different sense. //  
  
Half smirking, Tasuka Yashiro turned to face his men. " Time for future strategies."  
  
*~*  
  
The afternoon air smelled sweet. In the distance came a bird chirping, and Kenshin had no doubt that it was an oriole.  
  
The ex-hitokiri looked over his shoulder. Even the outside of the "warehouse" was looking less miserable in the afternoon sun. A quiet smile played over his lips.  
  
The current problem was solved.  
  
Even Saitou's taunting couldn't ruin his mood.  
  
"Get going, Battousai. Don't stand there looking like an idiot."  
  
"None of your business, Saitou."  
  
Saitou chose to ignore the retort. "I'm going back to the police station now."  
  
"Get going, Saitou. Don't stand there looking like an idiot."  
  
If Saitou was irritated or anything at his words thrown back to him, he didn't show it. // He's getting as good as Aoshi. // Kenshin thought amusedly.  
  
Saitou narrowed his eyes as something dashed towards them at a distance. Kenshin followed his gaze, forgetting to taunt the Miburo for a bit more.  
  
"What's that?"  
  
The former manslayer stared really, really hard. "It's... two people." Realizing who they were, his eyes widened.  
  
"Ken...tai! Kaoru-dono!"  
  
Battousai looked bad. His face was even paler than usual, his hair in complete disarray. His gi was torn in a number of places and he was looking fatigued.  
  
Kenshin gasped as Battousai collapsed right in front of him, releasing his grip on Kaoru's wrist. Kenshin caught him by the shoulders, sinking slowly to his knees.  
  
"Kentai. *Kentai* ! What happened!" the rurouni inquired, giving the hitokiri a little shake. The hitokiri's eyelids fluttered, but refusing to open his eyes. Kenshin stared worriedly on the red head leaning on his shoulder. His breath was shallow and uneven, but there were no apparent wounds on him. The ex-assassin shifted him to a more comfortable position, allowing his head to rest on his shoulder without suffocating.  
  
"Th-they don't care anymore...get me at all cost...I don't want that...won't mind hurting others along the way..." the hitokiri gasped urgently, clutching the rurouni's gi with all the strength he could muster. Panicked lavender eyes looked up at him. At this state Battousai looked so vulnerable. A lone child, hiding from whatever fear he had. There wasn't even a trace of the legendary hitokiri in this boy now.  
  
Kenshin patted his back consolingly, making nothing out of his rambling words. "It's all right now, *Kenshin*, nothing's going to hurt you." He whispered, making sure Kaoru couldn't catch a word of what he was saying. Battousai shook his head faintly, unable to speak.  
  
Kenshin turned to Kaoru. "Kaoru-dono, what ...." he froze on seeing the girl's face. Ocean blue eyes widened with shock and disbelief. Lips trembling, standing there immobile.  
  
It seemed that it was more than just Battousai in trouble.  
  
Authoress' notes: Oro! Another short chapter. Maybe I shouldn't make chapters too long and get it posted more often (say, 2000 words a chapter. Now it's approximately 3600 - 5000 ) What do you think? Please conclude it in your reviews !!!*bows* Really sorry for the long delay. I have schedule all week =^.^= Please review this chapter also!! Okay, As usual, re- reviews!  
  
Koe760-kun: hello! Really, my updates are too slow isn't it? Uh never mind, you enjoying life outta summer school? Guess so *smirks* It's raining really heavy outside, I guess because it's summer. So I'm stuck here at home. Another good reason to finish the chapter off. Just think that everyone's acting lunatic in this chapter, mainly because I'm hasty to get the Tasuka case over with. Good, it'll be Bakumatsu next chapter! Nice change of scene. I'm already getting bored without blood or violence *snickers* Well, talk to ya more in the email. Hopefully you'd have received it, ne? Don't get scraped off your computer now! I'll be waiting for reviews *plus* emails!  
  
Boomerang-chan-sama: How's that? Battousai in trouble! I was thinking where I should put Kaoru, and so I placed her with Battousai. Poor her, still doesn't know what Battousai is. Anyway, you know what I'll do to regular reviewers *Hitokiri-san laughs evilly. B-chan-sama backs away in fear. A pair of eyeballs flew to the moon as a result of being hugged too tightly* Anyway! We'll be going on without that Yashiro boy.  
  
Liemtenshi-sama: My other really regular a-review-per-chapter reviewer, you are! This story is getting so long - 34000 words currently! Wah! *faints in fright* I can write?!? Next coming, Bakumatsu time! I really want Katsura on the screen again, for sure. I like him. Cool man, he is. Oro! Battousai's gonna be weird. So will Kenshin.  
  
Sapphire-eyes-sama: Hi! Me again. Is this chappie okay? I really really hope that you'd enjoy it, ne? ^^ Anyway, see ya in the next chapter and please don't be late! *Hitokiri-san got smacked by Sapphire-eyes-sama*  
  
ChocolateEclar-sama: One chap up, and sorry for the long delay! I am so honored to receive your review, de gozaru yo!  
  
Are-en-sama: Are you out there reading the story? I do hope so ^^. Anyway, please review this story. I couldn't wait to see more reviews.  
  
Lilfrozenfire-sama: There! So long for one chapter! I suck! Well, I wish I can be faster but can't...currently running out of imagination. My temper is fraying currently becoz of the bad weather!  
  
LittoGrrlStephie-sama: Goodies! I find this chapter really tough to write. I hope you can bear with me!  
  
Dork-in-training-sama: Oro! I'm tired! It's so early in the morning and I'm already wanting to sleep (I've only been up for about 3 hours) Must have something to do with the goddamn weather! 


	7. Prologue to A Time we both hated

Past and Future by Hitokiri-san  
  
Disclaimers: It would be better for all of us that I don't own RK. Otherwise, minna-sama would be grieved for the remnant of their lives seeing Kenshin (obviously suffering) with some indescribably ugly girl nicknamed Hitokiri-san. And this Hitokiri-san would drown in a sea of complaint letters saying this manga isn't suitable for any person under 80. (for the appearance of a disturbing monster every chapter which is actually the main female character Hitokiri-san)  
  
A/U: Hi again minna! I've decided to make this chapter a tad shorter...about 3500 words...so that I could update faster and won't be torn limb by limb by violence reviewers (including xxx, xxx AND xxx and more xxx) *Authoress transformed into a chibi punchbag. A lot of people are lining up for their hit* Oro! Anyway, a special thanks to RINOA-HEARTILLY19- sama and liemtenshi-sama for adding me to their favourite authors list (not to mention the previous B-chan-sama and Jovian Angel-sama) please read the special column under the story, left for my lovely reviewers! Sorry I know I promised Bakumatsu at this chapter, but my brain bullied me to write a flashback and I don't have the length for it...gomen! =^. -=  
  
*AWARE! I've got a really really amazing pic from koe760, please take a look at it in  
  
(http :// hk.geocities.com / hitorkiri _ battousai _ ishinshishi / ShowLetter . jpg)  
  
Please eliminate all the spaces in that URL, sorry I have to separate it because it won't appear onscreen otherwise.  
  
Ch8 Prologue to A time we both hated  
  
"So..." the rurouni looked down on the sleeping tanuki girl, absent- mindedly stroking a stray strand of her raven hair. There was something close to sadness in his eyes. "So. That's it. That's why sessha found you unconscious on the street that day."  
  
Battousai nodded silently, forehead touching his knees as he sat against the wall. Seeing the rurouni suffer pained him. Although they did not see each other as brothers there was something closer between them - almost like twins but still closer - that kept them closely connected, mentally and emotionally. When the rurouni felt sad, the hitokiri shared his pain. When the hitokiri was at risk, the rurouni felt uneasy. After all, they were the same person at slightly different stages, and completely different times.  
  
Saitou was on the other side of the room, listening without a comment. For once he wasn't smoking. Maybe the seriousness of all this had caught his full attention, both Kenshins mused. Or more likely, he had run out of cigarettes.  
  
Saitou shifted on his cushion, leaning his chin on one hand.  
  
So his prediction was true. Deep in his heart he knew one day it would happen, one day this "Kentai boy" had to either disappear or be eliminated. One could not and should not mess with supernatural powers - that is, anything that could not be Gatotsu-ed wasn't to be messed with.  
  
Silence.  
  
More silence.  
  
The hitokiri fixed his gaze on the rurouni's face, then averting it before their eyes could meet. " Are you angry with me? I...I hid it from you. Because of me, Kaoru-dono was shocked though not injured. It was all my fault."  
  
"Iie." The rurouni's amused chuckle surprised the boy so much that he actually jumped a tad bit, a strange little noise caught at his throat. Seeing this, the rurouni only chuckled louder. "Know what? I think you sound like myself." It was the first time Kenshin found his own trademark self-denial mirrored in the boy; it seemed that his transformation into a rurouni wasn't that much of a coincidence after all.  
  
Battousai only stared at him with clueless lavender eyes, looking as much like a lost child as possible. Not bothering to elaborate his point, Kenshin reached out to pat his shoulder, a concerned glow in his rich violet orbs. "How hurt are you, anyway?"  
  
"I...uh...I am alright actually." As if that statement pulled a trigger, a spasm of pain decided to tear through his body at the current moment. Battousai hardly winced. Being a hardened hitokiri and a loving "nii-chan" of the rurouni he would not show the pain on his face.  
  
// Besides, that would be something more than a laughing matter to the psychotic Miburo. // he thought darkly. Right. Another sufficient reason, then.  
  
Battousai wondered at how long lasting the effects of those invisible hits were; an hour had passed and the wounds - undetectable to the naked eyes - were still hurting like no tomorrow. Battousai couldn't see the point of applying medicine or bandages on to the "wounds". First, he could not see them; second, they weren't bleeding so bandages would be for nothing. Subconsciously he glared briefly at a spot where Zenei's willpower had struck, wishing it would hurt less.  
  
"It still hurts, ne?" Battousai jumped again at the soft-spoken words as though scorched. Too often he or the rurouni would forget that they could read each other's mind. Shaking his head, the hitokiri nodded - truthfully. "It will go away soon - I hope." He fingered the torn hole on his gi, peering into the unscathed skin inside. It didn't look hurt, not even remotely reddened or something. Battousai scowled, not daring to poke it. Reliving the blood-freezing scene that afternoon the boy shuddered.  
  
*~*  
  
It was quite a while after that sentimental little scene on the street, and Battousai was striding along the crowds at the fastest speed he could get without dumping Kaoru behind. Kaoru was following him closely while having trouble at it because of her restrictive kimono. She wished wistfully that she had her training outfit on; it would save both of them so much trouble.  
  
"Why are you hurrying so much, Kentai-san? You said we wouldn't be in trouble as long as we take the main streets..." Kaoru asked, cheeks flushed as she trotted alongside the hitokiri boy.  
  
"Don't ask me why," Battousai interrupted, eyeing each corner suspiciously, "it's just a feeling. A feeling that danger is pressing."  
  
"Oh."  
  
"Wait." The Ishin warrior said suddenly, eyes slitted in concentration as he stared at the street ahead. Kaoru followed his gaze; there was no one, or nothing in particular that looked remotely close to threatening. She glanced at him; he seemed fairly confused himself.  
  
"What is it?"  
  
The redhead raised a hand to stop her question, still looking in the same direction. "I told you. A swordsman's feeling." Dragging her by the wrist, he turned left at the crossroad instead of walking straight ahead - which was the fastest way there was - sometimes senses are more reliable than sight.  
  
They walked on in tense silence, Kaoru keeping close to the now positively jogging hitokiri. The suspense was more than unbearable. The tanuki girl wished there was only a few streets left, but the assassin knew better. There was about twenty more minutes until they got there.  
  
Anything can happen in twenty minutes.  
  
"Matte," Kaoru said abruptly, pressing a hand to her temple. Battousai glanced back at her, nonplussed.  
  
"I want to go that way," she told him, pointing to a desolated back alley in front. The manslayer frowned. What exactly was she thinking? All this time he was trying to avoid deserted roads...and the girl told him to go *that* way? He opened his mouth to voice a "no", but all of a sudden his mind told him it wasn't really a bad idea after all. // A hitokiri, like a mouse, has to stay in the dark...//  
  
His common sense didn't agree. Damn, where did that thought come from? It absolutely made no logical sense at all. He opened his mouth again for a "no"...this time the message in his mind got stronger. Not even knowing what he was doing he heeded it, entering the alley with a dazed mind.  
  
Deeper and deeper into the alley they went, without an idea of where they were going. Somehow the hitokiri had ceased to think about going to the warehouse anymore; the only thought left in his head was to keep walking. Just keep walking, don't think about unnecessary things...it was like falling into a curse, each and every part of his brain completely blank.  
  
The hell it was.  
  
"Wait, WAIT! This isn't the way I want to go!" The hitokiri sounded out loud, falling out of his trance. Spinning sideward he shook Kaoru vigorously; there was an empty look in her eyes, deprived of her usual liveliness and strong will. Battousai felt the hair standing up on his neck.  
  
"We gotta get out of here! I think something's getting at our mind. This- has-something-to-do-with..."  
  
"Zenei Makimoto, you're right." Zenei emerged from the dark, looking neither angry nor happy. "A strong will you must have, to break through my control, Himura. Actually, I've always found your mind more difficult to read than most people. That's why we've let you escape so many times. But now...the game is over. We don't trust you anymore. We're going to take the time turner by force."  
  
Battousai found himself cornered. There was no way to back out now like he did last time. "At least let the girl go."  
  
"No. You've tried it your way, now I'll do it *my* way. The girl isn't going anywhere. We will erase her memory as Kamiya Kaoru."  
  
The hitokiri moved in front of Kaoru, snarling briefly.  
  
// I'm not giving up now after all this trouble we have to go through. // But then again, saying it was easy. Doing it was another thing. If Zenei could control his mind, he could as well make him talk. Battousai flinched mentally at this.  
  
The Hiten samurai glanced upwards; there was no way he could make it to the roof without being attacked. Hell, even with his trademark godlike speed those men could still shoot him down without problem.  
  
"You aren't going to try the roof aren't you?" Zenei inquired serenely, catching his glance.  
  
"Yes, I was."  
  
"I would recommend staying still before we injure you really badly. Anyway, the next time you wake up you'll be back in the Ishinshishi headquarters and you won't remember anything that happens here." Zenei stated.  
  
Zenei raised a hand, directing it at Battousai. Knowing what would happen Battousai backed away, shielding Kaoru behind him. His shoulder brushed against the side of the alley. There was no escape...  
  
*~*  
  
Takatsuki Yokima was making her way down her favourite alleyway, an umbrella in one hand and a basket full of groceries dangling in another. At the turn she heard someone talking.  
  
" ...remember anything that happens here..." she looked over. There was a great gang of people surrounding what seems like a young redheaded boy and his sister. The boy was backing away in fear, but still trying to shield his older sister behind him. What a brave boy.  
  
He tilted his body a little bit, and Yokima saw the daishou bound to the boy's obi. Suddenly old feelings welled up inside her. Yokima's son had been a samurai of Aizu clan; he had been lost to her in a battle along with his sister and the next time she got news of him, her boy was already slaughtered by the Hitokiri Battousai and her daughter was nowhere to be found.  
  
// Red hair...but it can't be. This boy's so young. I can't start taking everyone as Hitokiri Battousai now... // she thought to herself. It didn't matter; how shameful it was for a total of twenty men to rob a child and a young girl! Her boy would have angered at that. If she were a samurai like him, she would slash them all down...but she wasn't and the one and only thing she could do was...  
  
"ROBBERY! THERE'S A GANG OF ROBBERS IN HERE! QUICK, COME OVER!"  
  
At this point a couple of men around poked their heads into the alley.  
  
"Robbers?"  
  
"Where?"  
  
"We'll flatten them."  
  
"Someone tell the police."  
  
It was really a pleasant surprise for Zenei and his men. All craned their necks towards the entrance of the alley, Battousai momentarily forgotten. Zenei muttered a swearword so interesting that probably Kaoru hadn't even heard of it in her whole seventeen years of life.  
  
"Quick, stun the boy first, then we'll go." Zenei said aloud to his men, who replied with a loud "hai!". All of them twirled around instantly, searching for the boy.  
  
But Battousai was way smarter than just standing there and watch. Taking advantage of their temporary distraction, he leapt up to the roof, dragging Kaoru along with him. He noted that her eyes were still quite unfocused, but there was no time for that now.  
  
However, Zenei was smarter than he originally bargained for, and though Kaoru wasn't heavy at all she had slowed him down.  
  
As a result, the men caught him in mid-leap. Giving a deafening yell all fired at the hitokiri at once. Invisible shots or no Battousai knew he couldn't dodge them in the air, and better yet a few would hit Kaoru - on purpose or by mistake he didn't know.  
  
With an almighty tug he had Kaoru on the roof first, but that also meant *he* would slow down and receive the majority of the shots. He didn't care. Battousai had sworn to himself to guarantee the safety of the girl and he would never break a promise, even to himself.  
  
It was an unexpected feeling. It was as if white-hot iron was pressed onto his skin - past his veins and burning into his organs. The boy screamed in pain; a thud under him told him that he had landed on the fragile rooftop of some building but he didn't care; the pain was blinding him, directions and positions was now futile. He felt something close around his wrist but still didn't care - he just wanted this pain to end, the whole time traveling ordeal seemed so faraway and irrelevant now with the pain he was dealing with.  
  
It went on and on, the torturous sensation of pain; Battousai didn't even know if he was conscious or not. But then after god-knows-how-long his vision cleared, bit by bit, and he realized all the time he'd been awake.  
  
The Ishinshishi hitokiri looked up, not knowing what he should expect to see. He raised his head - the first thing he saw was the sleeve of a kimono. The next thing he know, he was *running* even in his pain.  
  
The hitokiri's blurry vision came clear all of a sudden with that previous thought, and saw himself being dragged along by a running.Kaoru-san?  
  
"K-Kaoru-san..."  
  
Kaoru turned back at him, not bothering to stop. Her eyes seemed a bit watery but determined as well.  
  
"Kentai-san I am sorry, I know you shouldn't be running in this state....but I'm afraid that....."  
  
"I understand that fully, n-no need to apologize. You know where you're going?" Battousai asked, trying vainly to keep his voice level.  
  
"That's the problem, but I can't ask you." Kaoru informed him worriedly. The redheaded boy almost smiled.  
  
"S-slow down a moment, I-I'll see where we are....Argh!" he cried out as Kaoru stopped abrupt without a warning and he bumped right into her.  
  
The whole street swerved around to look at the duo.  
  
"Ouch, sorry," the kendo instructor muttered. The redhead blinked, not answering. He was surprised at how near they were to the warehouse that was the base of the Vanguard Of Justice.  
  
He pointed weakly to somewhere at his right. "That way."  
  
He led her through the labyrinth of crisscrossing streets that made up Kyoto. Within minutes the roof of the warehouse came into sight behind a number of houses.  
  
"Not much people around here, but we'll have to risk it." Battousai said suddenly, feeling something again.  
  
"RUN!"  
  
For once Battousai lead the girl through some potentially dangerous roads, their sandals tearing up dirt as they ran past. The tanuki girl shrieked as the wall near her was blasted into a cloud of dust.  
  
"Silence!" Battousai snapped through gritted teeth as footsteps rang from behind, eerily close. Motioning her to run along, he turned back to where the fallen wall was. With a smooth sweep of his leg he had all the dust flying into the air. Perfect for escape.  
  
Catching up with Kaoru again he skidded over a crossroad and into the light of a widen street.  
  
"Look what we have here." Battousai said with relief, seeing the girl's shaken expression.  
  
About two streets ahead two men were exiting from a ran-down warehouse. Their heights contrasted greatly, frank to say, and both carried their swords so naturally that the blades seemed a part of them. Dark hair with a few stray strands, and...  
  
"Rurouni..." with the last of his strength Battousai ran to the familiar redhead, now seemed so welcoming after a morning of battles.  
  
*~*  
  
Yokima-san's mouth hung open as the boy flew over the wall and out of sight. He was good, after all. Maybe she was being a meddlesome fool - the boy might want to have a little fun with those filthy robbers. She watched as the townsfolk chased the "robbers" in question out of the alley, itching to land a blow on their pea-brained heads with her umbrella. But they were long gone; she sighed ruefully, feeling a sense of motherly liking for the redheaded boy.  
  
//That kid ...he's such a fantastic samurai - maybe my son would like to be friends with him Maybe I'll introduce the boy to him when I visit his grave next time...yes, to my boy Gentatsu. //  
  
She walked back to her home, a smile lingering on her lips. It always comforted her that his son died valiantly, that he died serving his ideals. Yokima hoped that Toki was all right - she *knew* her daughter would be a beauty someday.  
  
So the woman left silently, not knowing that fate had yet made a mockery out of her cost.  
  
*~*  
  
"Kenshin?" the rurouni's voice registered in Battousai's mind all of a sudden.  
  
It was the third time he jumped.  
  
"Huh, what?" Battousai focused his gaze.  
  
"You thinking about something?" Kenshin inquired, softly as though in fear of scaring him.  
  
"Hmmm." Battousai said evasively. Kenshin sighed. " I hope everything will be alright at the end. What shall we do now?"  
  
Saitou's eyes were closed as he crossed his arms. "Depends on you." He said shortly, bringing all of them back to the current problem - should Battousai return to the Bakumatsu?  
  
Kenshin realized both of them were staring at *him* in unison. Very obviously, the decision laid with him.  
  
Logic told him it would be best he send Battousai back. He certainly didn't like the idea of risking the whole world for his own sake. Yes, he and Battousai was one person after all, a minor part compared to the whole world. He knew Battousai would understand, though it would definitely be painful for the boy. He had no right to destroy the whole world because of some stupid decisions he made.  
  
The boy must go back to the Bakumatsu.  
  
He just *knew* he would regret it.  
  
The rurouni turned to Battousai, his expression telling the boy everything. At least that would save him the words, Kenshin thought bitterly.  
  
"I understand." The boy said timidly, falling into the habit of dipping his head so that his overgrown bangs would cover his downcast face. The rurouni knew this habit only too well. "I don't deserve all these, I'm a hitokiri." There was almost a bite of vehemence in his sad tone.  
  
Again, the former hitokiri saw something that linked Battousai to him. Self- depreciation. It used to drive everyone around him nuts. And resulted in everyone hitting him in their unique ways.  
  
Not good. He was already regretting about the decision.  
  
"Sessha..."  
  
"Don't apologize. I gave the decision to you. Willingly. It was no fault of yours." the hitokiri managed a smile, only it looked distressing under the shade of his hair. //But why.why Kami-sama has to play with me like this? // He found tears welling up in his eyes, and shook it away. For a moment he was glad that his bangs provided him the privacy he needed. But Kenshin noticed his shoulders trembling a bit. Again he sighed, knowing words would be of no use by now.  
  
"Wait." Kenshin said to no one in particular.  
  
"What?" Battousai said, more to conceal his depress than actually interested in what he had to say.  
  
"Wait," the rurouni repeated blankly. "It's sometime about two weeks since you're here. *Why* didn't this time zone disappear all this time? It should have.long ago. I don't understand how it works."  
  
"Neither do I." Assured that his eyes didn't look reddened or anything, he looked up from his unruly strands. Half-lit by the faint glow emitted from the candle his older counterpart looked almost slightly translucent, propped up against the wall with his sakabatou leaning on his shoulder. His friend, his mentor, even those couldn't properly describe their relationship...  
  
Matte. The sakabatou didn't look *remotely* translucent.  
  
Which meant, it couldn't be a trick of the light.  
  
Battousai rubbed his eyes hard, and cast them on the rurouni again.  
  
// Dammit, why can I see the blasted wall behind him? //  
  
Kenshin batted an eyelid, baffled. Battousai was staring at him with a mix of daze and horror. What the.  
  
"SAITOU!" the hitokiri yelled, louder than he intended. "Can you see..." he merely pointed at Kenshin, the words choking in his throat.  
  
Saitou looked up from his thoughts as if he had all the time in the world. Man, it wasn't really like him to be so absorbed in musing as to be oblivious to anything else.  
  
"Battousai!" the Miburo's normally tiny eyes widened to their fullest extent, and he actually managed to look shocked. "You...!"  
  
Kenshin return the stares in complete confusion. The rarity of Saitou *looking shocked* was not lost on him. //Something must have happened to me..... // He put a hand before his face. He could clearly see Battousai's horrified expression *through his hand*...  
  
Battousai calmed himself as he scrambled up to reach the rurouni. What the hell was that? Kenshin seemed.dare he say it, Kenshin seemed to be disappearing into thin air. But...why....  
  
Then fact hit him hard on the face. // Time. Time overwritten, world disappearing, and the rurouni will go first because you are the trigger for the whole enormous change.... //  
  
"Damn! Zenei's threat wasn't empty. Time is doing its twisted turn...." the hitokiri said, fear carefully banked away from his mind. He needed only calmness now. He needed to stop this happening at all cost...  
  
"I'll get Zenei, he can get the time right again!"  
  
"No need for that, I'm already here." Came a voice behind the shouji. As usual, he'd just materialized out of nowhere. Battousai fancied he saw a flicker of triumph crossing the men's silvery orbs.  
  
"I told you that, didn't it? You didn't believe me."  
  
*~*~*~*  
  
A/U: That transparent idea actually came from the movie Spirited Away, though at first I didn't realize it. And I actually goofed at an idea and had to think for a half-hour before I could get it right, because it's logically incorrect. Demo, I promise. Great time next chapter. Really, don't harm me! *dodges flying everything* By the way, can anyone tell me what a muse is? And I'm currently running out if ideas for disclaimers.  
  
Koe 760 -kun: Oro!! (that is a word that has caused mom some grief, though she doesn't know what it really means coz I doubt if she can even remember the name Rurouni Kenshin) You're not replying again! Must-have-something-to- do-with-ruddy-email! *weeps hysterically* Yare yare, I'd better write everything here. More convenient this way. I found a really cute Shisengumi pic online and I'll be sending it over in a min...just till I sort out the reviews...  
Really, your wallscroll looks real hot! I would like one on my way as well...but I think mom'd be skinning me. What I have now is two really innocent calendars, one featuring cutie cats and the other dogs. If you don't mind sending the wallscroll over...*cracks knuckles threateningly*  
My bro is on camp, so I have the computer to myself today. I checked out your favourite stories list and found some really interesting ones that I haven't read ( though I saw Past and Future on it as well, yooooohoooooooooooo) the one called A Rurouni's Guide to Idiocy...I laughed my head off at it. Talk to you later, don't forget to send me an email coz I'm (again!!) running low on ideas. Actually I have no idea what would happen after they land in the Bakumatsu, so I hafta get a idea-booster! (And somehow I managed to patch Gentatsu's mom in as well, first I was thinking she got a husband died in war and then no, a son's better.....then I accidentally wrote Aizu clan, coz that's the only clan I know besides Choshu and Shisengumi...then...EEKKKK, Aizu clan?!? Why don't she be Gentatsu's mom? It freaks me out, really ^^  
  
Boomerang-chan-kun-: Time to drop the formalities for once, coz I'm feeling murderous!! Thanks to you, I've lost my eyeballs! *eyeballs roasting in the sun* Now I can't write, hahahahahah! I'll never update! (Aw, haven't I just updated it? I goofed! How uncool that was!) Now, what happens is Battousai messed the whole thing up since the beginning. Oro! And I checked out your poem as well. It's freaky-deaky interesting! I suggest you work on more of them. Thanks for putting me on your favs!!! You know what your reward is for that? *Hitokiri-sam approaches from the dark with an eyeless face. B-chan-kun, again, backs away in fear.* PICK THAT BLASTED EYEBALLS UP FOR ME! *smirks*  
  
Liemtenshi-kun: *tension marks rolling off my head after reading your review* I ain't called Miss Hitokiri for nothing!! *bunch of katanas appearing in hand* You think I would end this by just throwing things? Prepare to die! *starts throwing random katanas around until the wall is full of them. Liemtanshi-kun is standing at the side, blinking innocently.* Well then! I'm tired. I'll continue that later. Sorry for Katsura not appearing in this chapter! I'll make him appear somewhere, then. He's bound to appear someday! And Kenshin + Battousai will be weird as YOU! *katanas filling my hands again*  
  
Sapphire-eyes-kun: my train of thoughts on the story is really freaking me out now! Sometimes the ideas are illogical, so to say, but most of the time I can't spot the problem, heh!  
  
ChocolateEclar-kun: Please enjoy your chocolate eclar while reading the story, de gozaru! I'm getting slow again...  
  
Are-en-sa.ew, I mean -kun: Coz I remember you! Even if you don't review every time I know you'll be around. So I'm leaving messages for the reviewers throughout the story! I sound like Misao-chan? *tongue pokes out* But sama can also mean Lady! Oro! I don't like tomatoes! I've already had them for dinner and I hate them. Don't be rash! Drop your tomatoes and surrender!  
  
Lilfrozenfire-kun: Wah! You're turning 15! Congratulations! So we're practically the same age, eh? I'll be Grade 10 next month too! School depressed me when I come to think of it.  
  
LitoGrrlStephanie-kun: it wont happen I promise. However, the other way around....*smirks* evil am I? Poor Kaoru.  
  
Dork-in-training-sama: in case you're reading, thanks for that! Please stop by when you have time!  
  
BabyKaoru-sama-kun: (BabyKaoru-sama-sama would be weird...) At all cost? How about you bribr me, I write it? *Hitokiri-san got smacked into the ground* Baby-Kaoru-sama: those who want to taste dust are welcome to ask me for money!  
  
Insert catchy name here-kun: Thanks for the compliments! What are plotholes, by the way? I'll be updating regularly!  
  
Califpinay3001-kun: I wonder what your name means? It look so interesting and it takes much of me to type it right...thanks for the review! ^o^  
  
Sajin-Zero-kun: Hi, it's you! It am so surprised when you came to my review board! ^^  
  
The Sacred Night-kun: Yeah, his name is Tasuka Yashiro. Actually I like the flashback also, the most out of my crappy story *blush* I came up with the fire scene coz I myself is very very afraid of fire...and putting one of my fears (full list includes snakes, spiders, cockroaches, and fire) might be an interesting idea. I myself got a bit confused by time, and then made a mistake of Kenshin wanting to say... Kenshin: It doesn't make sense. If I decide to send you back you should have memory of this whole thing now. But you don't. That means I shouldn't send you back. Battousai: That's coz Zenei erased my memory, ahou! Of course Battousai never said the above....but some time later I thought of it and had to delete an entire column...  
  
Akima-Miota-kun: Welcome to seventh aka the crappiest chapter ever! I hope you've enjoyed it anyway. 


	8. A Time We Both Hated, the Bakumatsu

Past and Future By Hitokiri-san  
  
Disclaimers: I'll tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth : The day RK is mine the nine hells will break loose and Kenshin will date my Class teacher. Get it?  
  
A/U: Okay. I suck. I update real slow, huh? Please bear with me, guys? And ladies?  
  
Ch 9 A Time We Both Hated - the Bakumatsu  
  
"Zenei!"  
  
Everyone got up from their positions with alarm and reached for their respective weapons.  
  
Zenei glimpsed at Battousai in a nonchalant way; gaze moving sideward he noticed the rurouni gripping his sakabatou tightly, face troubled and knuckles white. The hitokiri glanced around. There was no trace of the other members of Time.  
  
"I don't suggest assaulting me as you are now, Himura. We don't have too much *time* to goof around." He drawled at the semi-transparent Himura Kenshin.  
  
"You..." Kenshin said, half torn between angered and stressed. Battousai took over.  
  
"Okay Zenei I surrender. How does this work?" The boy was shaking slightly, but determined just as well. He reached into his haori and pulled out - finally - the plain and harmless looking top which actually stored the power of the time turner.  
  
"Genuine one this time." Battousai laid the top on his outstretched palm, looking Zenei directly in the eyes.  
  
Zenei scrutinized the thing with rapt attention. There was a layer of dazzling green light surrounding the object, ensuring its own genuineness before the man would ever need to touch it. // Strange. It never emits its power quite so vigorously. // Zenei thought as he walked over to take the object in question.  
  
Battousai stood motionless as his adversary examined the top. There was a gasp behind him. Heart beating infuriatingly fast against his ribcage, the hitokiri boy whipped backwards. The sight meeting him was unnerving - the rurouni was crouching on one knee, looking so faint that he was almost indistinguishable. Light seemed to pass right through him to illuminate the wall behind, and Battousai, squinting his eyes, saw cold sweat rolling down the side of his older counterpart's face - even the sweat seemed a couple of nonexistent silver shadows. Battousai ran to his side, attempting to support him by the shoulder - only his hand passed right through the wanderer's shoulder as though he was nothing but air.  
  
"Kami-sama...what the heck's happening?" The boy rasped, eyes wide as saucers.  
  
Zenei drifted his gaze to the ghost-like rurouni, alarmed. "Shit, he's starting to lose his memory and strength...in other words fading....give me the thing, now!"  
  
For once in his life Battousai complied, his hesitation forgotten. //Rurouni and Kaoru-san...I'm just messing their lives up...it would be better if I just give up. //  
  
Time - nicknamed Zenei Makimoto - surveyed the thing under his nose, nodding. "One more thing to do now." He walked towards the unconscious Kaoru, looking grim. Kaoru was given a sedative earlier due to the shock she received, and the three men were almost relieved that she would not have to hear the end of this insanity.  
  
The hitokiri moved to block his way. To his surprise, so did Saitou.  
  
"What are you doing, Zenei?" Battousai spat, spreading his arms wide.  
  
"I'll have to take her too." Zenei replied calmly.  
  
"Oh no you don't! You *promised*!" Battousai yelled in his face, face flushed.  
  
"As did you. But did you fulfill it?" Silvery eyes gleamed maliciously. "And this willow head too. Saitou Hajime huh? I can't have him blabbing my secret all over the place."  
  
The Ishinshishi hitokiri was now trembling with suppressed rage. He was now in a no-way-out situation. Handing in the object would cause the loss of another two person, but not handing it in would even be worse. He knew that actually *he* was in the wrong, insisting to stay in a time that was not rightfully his - but it was his fault and *his* only, damn it! Kaoru-san, rurouni, even Saitou...they were only victims of his meaningless struggle against fate, against a path that he, Himura Kenshin aka Battousai, had chosen wrongly. He had no right to do this!!  
  
Without thinking what he was doing or what swords were for Battousai had dispersed into the air, reappearing only to slam straight into Zenei, wrestling the top out of his hands. Caught unawares, Zenei threw his hands up into the air, bringing down the shouji behind him.  
  
The redheaded hitokiri heard several voices screaming at once; one was Zenei's, one was Saitou's, the remaining one the rurouni's. He didn't care; he knew for sure that the rurouni would rather be erased from this world than lose his Kaoru-dono - and if the rurouni was erased from this world then other things would matter no more to the hitokiri.  
  
Bringing his elbow down he smashed the nonliving man's windpipe, expecting it to cut his air off momentarily. To any another person this would certainly work, but the boy had forgotten one thing - Zenei wasn't a "living" person to begin with; he didn't need any air thus there was no air to cut off from.  
  
Maybe he realized it a bit too late. With a growl, Zenei blasted the hitokiri up to the ceiling with a simple flick of his hand. Battousai fell back to the ground weakly, raining debris from the ceiling covering every part of him. The rurouni in his own helplessness could only watch as his younger counterpart struggled vainly. Saitou shot in front of the fallen hitokiri, katana stretched out in a Gatotsu stance.  
  
The raven-haired man ignored the offending stance. " *What* the hell are you doing Himura? Your wounds from earlier on haven't recovered so stop being stupid and stay still." Zenei snapped, his patience with the boy cracking. Battousai's incredible will and wits had earned his respect; if not for that single element Zenei would have beaten him to submission ages ago.  
  
The boy brushed the dusty debris from his person, panting loudly. Any sensible person would have thought him harmless for the moment.  
  
Wrong.  
  
As if remembering what the existence of his swords was for, Battousai, still on his knees, brought his katana arcing out of its saya along with a leapt. He had only rested for about half an hour since his last run, therefore in no way recovered; his slash narrowly missed its target, but the hitokiri was fine with that.  
  
With his empty hand the redheaded manslayer slammed his elbow into the enemy's right shoulder, forcing him to drop the time turner. Not waiting for Zenei's retaliation Battousai snatched the falling object, jumping back behind Saitou. The Miburo in his part shielded the boy from immediate attacks.  
  
Battousai looked down at the curious object clutched against his lap. It was his top alright; the top that his deceased father left him as a parting reminder, the one that he had cherished in every day he could remember. That light, however...the boy prodded at unearthly looking light suspiciously. As we all know from our Physics textbook, light doesn't react to any amount of prodding or hitting.  
  
//Strange. // the boy thought, snapping his head up at the opponent again. " Tell me what to do to activate it. I agree to return to my own time, but you shall leave others alone. Otherwise I don't care if we all have to disappear." Naturally, the Mibu wolf would agree to this. His own fate was out to danger; so Battousai's plan was almost undeniable. Zenei would have to get past Saitou first if he wanted the thing back.  
  
"Clever boy..." Zenei glared at the pair of them, desperate. Experience told him that the green light swirling around the top was definitely *not* a good omen. Any time now the time altering power would break loose, and what on earth would happen then - well, even *he* didn't know.  
  
But he was going to take the risk. No one beat Zenei Makimoto in a contest of wits, let alone some stupid little boy such as Battousai. He was going to retrieve the thing in time and everything would go according to his plan no matter what.  
  
At the time of his musings Battousai was staring at the swirling mass of green light again. It was mesmerizing in some eerie way, he quickly discovered. Not that he didn't want to, but he just *couldn't* get his eyes off it.  
  
Not good.  
  
It was as if the light was *controlling* him.  
  
And that, was dangerous.  
  
Battousai didn't dare to even glimpse at the rurouni now, afraid that his will would soften at the sight of his vanishing form. He needed to keep the rurouni's world whole - he couldn't allow the loss of even *one* of those the wanderer held dear. Such was his intention; whatever would happen to him then was another question.  
  
Battousai miscalculating was a rare thing in his life.  
  
Hence he was completely flustered when a dash of green light struck his pupils and blinded the whole of his vision.  
  
Kuso, Zenei had caught him off guard again.  
  
Maintaining his death grip on the top Battousai dived for the nearest wall he could memorize, expecting to dodge the forthcoming attack.  
  
The problem was, the wall wasn't there.  
  
It didn't make sense. No way his photographic memory could be wrong. Ignoring the panic that seeped through him, Battousai made a blind dash to the side, expecting to bump into another wall.  
  
He ran for a couple of seconds; running into nothing but thin air. Again, it didn't make sense at all. What kind of a room could be as big as this?  
  
Battousai skidded to a stop, his heart beating painfully against his chest.  
  
The sound had gone too.  
  
He couldn't hear anything, not even the distant voice of townspeople jostling in the street...  
  
// Please let this stop... // the boy collapsed onto the ground, his breath coming in low rasps. He had enough. All of this...this wasn't suppose to happen in his life. It was as if his world was nothing but mere illusions, shadows that danced and disappeared as they please. As if anything could mock him and make a joke out of him.  
  
He was exhausted. Injured. And on top of that, scared.  
  
Himura Kenshin, the notorious Hitokiri Battousai, felt like he was a lost child for once.  
  
"Kenshin." someone was calling his name.  
  
Battousai tilted his head upwards, expecting someone to tell him that he'd passed out or something...instead, the unsmiling silhouette of the rurouni met his eyes, faint and unreal as an illusion.  
  
"Rurouni...Kenshin...what happened?" the boy picked himself up, a little relieved. He wasn't alone after all. He looked around him. An absolute blanket of blackness. They were two lone figures existing in a universe of nonexistence.  
  
The rurouni shook his head slowly before disintegrating into the mass of nothingness.  
  
"NO! RUROUNI!!!!"  
  
Battousai had finally realized the damage he'd done in earnest.  
  
*~*  
  
Year 1863, Genji 1st year.  
  
It was *not* good.  
  
He was smiling. He looked positively good-natured. His words were soft and polite.  
  
Which, they noted, was the worst thing that could happen.  
  
Everyone who knew Katsura Kogoro well enough knew when the Choshu Lord looked unreasonably good-natured, he was someone to be feared.  
  
Yes, fear him, because that usually meant he was angry beyond measure.  
  
That was why all cringed as Katsura smiled.  
  
"An Armstrong cannon, you say?" he turned to one Kaitori Yashiro, the only man that didn't seemed remotely afraid as the others were. Katagai was sitting right next to the young Choshu leader, silent for the time being.  
  
"Yes," Yashiro replied quietly. "I think Katasugi-san should be informed of this."  
  
"And how come our spy in the Bakufu arms depot haven't even heard of this?" Katsura said, his voice deceptively pleasant.  
  
"..."  
  
"The Bakufu has broken the rule, hasn't it. No Armstrong Cannon, no Gatling gun, no foreign battleships. Is there anything else we don't know in the present?"  
  
Again, there was no answer. Katsura made a note in mind he'd have to beat some sense into them someday. He sighed imperceptibly, scanning through his men with a rather edgy expression.  
  
"Where is Himura?"  
  
"I have sent for him a while ago." Tatsumi Hikideya said, eyeing the shouji with a frown. "He should be here soon..."  
  
The Choshu Lord was slightly surprised. Himura wasn't the type of man to be late; he tried to think of any work the boy had in hand that would cause his disappearance.  
  
None came into his mind.  
  
Worrying the smallest of bits Katsura waved the matter away. More important things were on his mind then; how to get rid of the suspected storage of Armstrong cannons in the Bakufu Arms depot, how to inform other allying clans of the matter; and then there were...  
  
BANG!  
  
"KATSURA-SAN!"  
  
All present in the room jumped on their respective cushions, attention diverted to a young samurai barging in at the moment.  
  
Katsura fretted disapprovingly. "We are having a meeting here, Matsukaze. What is it?"  
  
"Himura-san....Himura-san..."  
  
"What-is-it? Tell me slowly." Katsura said, a strange tinge of frantic tugging at his heart.  
  
"I don't know what happened..." Matsukaze muttered incoherently, "he just, just...." he gasped for breath, directing a shaky finger at his side. Though where he was pointing was solid wall, all knew that referred to the courtyard outside the house.  
  
"Himura!" Katsura lead the whole of his men running in that direction. // What could happen to him at our own headquarters? Please, kami-sama, don't let the child... //  
  
// Stop. //  
  
//You won't get anywhere with this. //  
  
// Just see with your... //  
  
"Damn! What's that?" One of Katsura's men swore as he gawked from the missing rooftop that hung over the corridor to the shattered walkway in front, proclaiming that something really heavy must have struck the roof and landed on the walkway. In the giant mass of destruction the Ishins couldn't even see the cause of this.  
  
*Masaka...*  
  
"...Armstrong Cannon..." someone whispered in a hush tone, sending others spiraling in a mass of doubt and fear.  
  
"Demo...."  
  
"How..."  
  
Katsura swept a look at the shattered tiles and planks lying on the floor, and it came to him.  
  
Not an Armstrong Cannon.  
  
His sixth sense alerted him to an event far more serious, history altering even. He did *not* know what it was, but -  
  
He shot a meaningful glance at Katagai. He understood.  
  
Without a word Katsura Kogoro ran for the courtyard aforementioned, leaving his inferiors gaping at the damage incredibly done.  
  
*~*  
  
WHAM!  
  
At the considerable force, the roof topping the Ishin headquarters broke off completely.  
  
Two similar cries rang through the night air as bits of wooden planks rained down on the two bewildered samurai, unheard by most people. Women had traditionally gone to bed, and men were either attending meetings, resting, or...disappeared to some place that need not be mentioned.  
  
That was *most* people.  
  
Coughing wildly, a wide-eyed teenager emerged from the rubble, his head breaking through the mass of squashed stuff. Pale lavender eyes tore through the area, not really taking anything in in his dizziness.  
  
// Why do I have the feeling that I know this place? // Shaking the unreasonable suspicion away, Battousai recalled the past events in a brief second.  
  
Oh darn it.  
  
"Rurouni!" filling his lungs for the scream only served to take in more dust than necessary. He coughed again, caught in a spasm of frantic. To his dismay either his ki sensing ability had messed up or simply the rurouni wasn't there; Battousai couldn't feel his presence anywhere. "Please, no.tell me you're here..." his hand brushed through the debris instinctively in fear, and something cool met his trembling skin.  
  
Metal.  
  
The hitokiri looked down on it, mouth hanging open.  
  
A hilt.  
  
*Sakabatou*.  
  
So it was his ki sensing ability that messed up.  
  
Gasping in joy, Battousai started digging a hole in the mess. His hands were scratched and bloodied but he didn't care; a strand of red emerging from the depth caught his eyes. He reached his hands in deeper - and pulled out a limp rurouni from under a wooden beam.  
  
Battousai turned him over him over, fright starting to overtake whatever joy he had a moment ago.  
  
The rurouni looked awful. Whatever colour he originally had was drained from his face, his breathing too shallow for the hitokiri's liking. // Kuso, what the...//  
  
The vague sensation of falling returned to him... a faraway view of the rooftop....his older counterpart hugging him against himself so he would be safe from the impact of the fall...  
  
He protected me from the crash, Battousai realized. A familiar feeling of regret filled his heart.  
  
// It's my fault again. My fault. //  
  
// Because of my selfish desire...I hurt him again and again... why, why does this happen every time?//  
  
Battousai dragged his unconscious brother-form away from the rubble, slipping on the ruins as he went. A tight numbness tugged at his heart. Where were they? How was the rurouni? How were the others? And...  
  
Shut up.  
  
I've got to take care of the rurouni first.  
  
The boy settled his clone self onto the nearest cobblestone path, propping him up with an elbow. He checked upon his injuries - a bruised shoulder, a badly cut arm, maybe a bump in the head caused the unconsciousness... he sighed in relief. Nothing too serious then. But why did the wanderer looked as though he had one foot in the coffin?  
  
Must have something to do with the time thing...one part of his mind twitched fearfully. Were they still in the Meiji era? What would happen to...  
  
I said shut up.  
  
Battousai shook the rurouni gingerly; his eyelids were slightly open - which was good. He grabbed his wrist. His pulse was returning to normal too. Another good thing. Seemed like the effects of the previous event was wearing off. Greatly encouraged, Battousai tried calling him.  
  
"Rurouni."  
  
"Uhn..." the boy was overjoyed though surprised upon hearing the rurouni's groan. "Ken...Kenshin? Are...you...you okay? Where...are we?"  
  
"I'm alright," the hitokiri replied, smiling. " As to where we are, I have no..."  
  
As if Kami-sama was personally presenting the answer, Kenshin abruptly noticed a someone standing over Battousai's back, someone who rang a bell in his sea of memories...  
  
"MATSUKAZE!"  
  
No. Freaking. Way.  
  
Please tell us we aren't in the Bakumatsu *again*  
  
Kenshin and Battousai looked up simultaneously - didn't this building look strangely familiar? Gulping, both looked into each other's eyes.  
  
And please tell us we aren't in the Ishin headquarters.  
  
A look at the oh-so-real looking Matsukaze defied all negative answers.  
  
"Hi...Himura-san," the boy stuttered, looking from one Himura Kenshin to another.  
  
Battousai turned around slowly, refusing to accept the truth. "Tell me, Matsukaze, whar year is it now?"  
  
With a yelp Matsukaze retreated from where he'd emerged, having just had enough. Injured and reduced in strength, both Kenshins had no power to stop him; nor had they any intention to do so.  
  
Complete silence. The hitokiri boy was going into shock; the news had hit him far more than it hit the rurouni. Perhaps the wanderer was more experienced than him, or maybe of other reasons; the rurouni watched sympathetically at the blank gaze before him, not saying a word himself.  
  
The silence was extremely disturbing.  
  
"After all that trouble we have to go through.isn't it the same in the end? I got *you* into this mess as well..." Battousai was on his knees, staring mournfully at nothing in particular. "Why didn't I die sooner? Everyone will just be much more happier; I bring nothing but problems upon problems to them. I should have..."  
  
The rurouni picked himself up slowly, fixing the boy with a reproving glare that made him stop on the spot. "Hush. This error in time isn't you fault. *You* didn't ask for it, and no one can fault you for wanting a little happiness..." Kenshin ruffled his long reddish bangs, eyes softened and smiling. "But as for now - "  
  
"If anyone asks, I'm Himura Kentai now."  
  
Battousai managed an amused smile, but it dampened at some indistinct memories. "Wait...wait! I remember telling Katsura-san I'm the only one left in the Himura family."  
  
"This is not good. Well then, I need to get away before Katsura-san finds us." The rurouni said, brows furrowed as he stood unsteadily up. "I'll be around this place, contact you later."  
  
"Wait! Demo..." Battousai didn't want to be left alone to his bloody hitokiri tasks.  
  
"It'll be alright, he'll believe you." With that a purple shadow flew over the wall, faint and undetectable as a fathom.  
  
Which left Battousai wallowing in his own troubles.  
  
*~*  
  
A/U : I would like to introduce certain fics that I think are definitely worth your time:  
  
Vegeta26 - Colder than ice, Harder than Stone  
  
Aroinhkin Silverblade - Bloodstained Steel  
  
Emiri-chan - Rended  
  
Unseen Watcher - Ties of Loyalty  
  
And I think every single person has read Prism and Descent to Madness....so, on with the usual re-reviews Koe 760 -kun: Okay, I know I suck. I update real slow. But you gotta bear with me, I'm sort of hopeless stuck here. A little glimpse of Bakumatsu this chapter, oh please some suggestions....I think I'm running out of ideas. And I don't like it one bit..I am thinking I won't be working the "Kentai" idea this time coz I got another idea in my mind *smirks evilly* but I ain't telling you about it. Ideas just seems to leak out of my mind like crazy. ^_^ I have a great long list of re-reviewing to do, so I'll see you in email! And there's really some interesting stories that I read recently, such as Rended by Emiri-chan (she's got a real cool Inuyasha fic too, I think you've mentioned somewhere that you read Inuyasha also. I tried reading it; I don't understand some of it but it's real good. ) and Ties of Loyalty by Unseen Watcher.  
  
Boomerang-chan-kun: You're weird for always saying you're weird! Does that make sense? Guess no.it's bone deep psychology and hard to understand...and now that I've got my eyeballs back, I forbid anyone to touch it lest it flies all over again ^_~...is this chapter alright? Actually I don't like it too much.my brain's sorta blocked.  
  
Liemtenshi-kun: All those time turning...you think I can't get hold of a wee bit of katanas? And 'bout the pic, I have it fixed now, but you still have to eliminate all the spaces within the URL, coz if I stick the words together the URL just disappears when I preview it...*sweatdrop* Gomen nasai! *Glowing in pride* I've been cutting chapters short for 1500 words - it used to be 5000 but I think it's too much. Now it's 3500 something...and Katsura actually made a appearance in this chap! Hah! Sorry for all the slow updates, anyway. Please turn your RK manga to...I don't know which chap...when the Purgatory is burnt I think Saitou looks surprised ^^ *muttering*Why do every person likes to read each other's re-review? Ahh! No! Don't start throwing things! *embarrassed* I'll be waiting for your glorious return.  
  
Sapphire-eyes-sama-kun: You know the answer now! ^^ I think Battousai will feel better if the rurouni's with him...he's but a lost little boy at the beginning of bloodlust, about half a year since he joined the Ishinshishi. Thanks for your compliments, I'll be updating regularly! *thinking : yeah, update. Someday I will* Did that came out as a thought bubble? *sweatdrop*  
  
ChocolateEclar-kun: Thanks for your review! I hope you're out reading the story! *bows* Are-en-kun: I updated it late! *ducked blood-red tomatoes* no, you don't kill me coz of that! Please review regularly or *I'll* throw a tomato to you!  
  
Lilfrozenfire-kun: Thanks for reading the story! I hope you enjoyed it.  
  
LittoGrrlStephanie-kun: For the continuous reviews, I now proudly present...a real late chapter! Thank you!  
  
Dork-in-Training-kun: Please review when you have time! I'll be waiting.  
  
BabyKaoru-sama-kun: I'll continue at all cost, muwahahhahahahahaha! You must keep reading at all cost too...  
  
Insert catchy name here-kun: I'll try updating faster...but don' expect too much of slow brain!  
  
Califpinay3001-kun: Thanks for the compliments!!  
  
Sajin-Zero-kun: Please catch on with me!  
  
The Sacred Night-kun: Actually I quite like Tasuaka, and I'm a mild bit disappointed that he got kicked out of the pic...*sigh*  
  
CharlieTheOtakuNymph: I've been thinking up that scene for long...I'm glad you like it!!!!  
  
Akima Miota-kun: I just *know* you're out there. Are you enjoying the crap I am writing? 


	9. Broken Trust

Past and Future By Hitokiri-san (hitorkiri_battousai_ishinshishi@yahoo.com.hk)  
  
Disclaimers: If the time turner thing really did work the first thing I do will be going to the past and killing Nobuhiro-san off before he could say "RK is mine." Unfortunately the time turner only exists in my perverted imagination so you know what I'm trying to say.  
  
A/U: first, let me apologize for the shortness of the chapter. Mainly because I won't be able to write for the next few days I'm posting this up for the time being. But don't worry, I will finish this story ~ somehow. =^.^=  
  
Ch 10 Broken Trust  
  
Katsura passed through the thick clump of bamboo bushes, annoyed that they had blocked his line of sight to the courtyard. While all the men had focused their attention on the destruction of the headquarter, Katsura alone knew better. The roof could be fixed, the floorboards could be replaced; but the sixth sense of a samurai was not to be ignored...  
  
"...wait! I remember telling Katsura-san I'm the only one left in the Himura family." Katsura recognized it as Himura's voice. A blend of puzzled relieve found its way into his heart - who was Himura talking to at this hour of the day?  
  
"This is not good. Well then, I need to get away before Katsura-san finds us." Another voice sounded, slightly deeper than the original, but eerily similar.  
  
"Wait! Demo..."  
  
"It'll be alright, he'll believe you."  
  
Brows furrowing Katsura parted the last stalks of bamboo, now feeling chilled by the whole conversation. It wasn't that hard to understand...Himura had a brother and had carefully hidden this fact from him. This annoyed him - and furthermore, it sent a wave of doubt down his stomach.  
  
Somewhere in the man's heart had always thought it was easy...*too* easy...to achieve the boy's unwavering loyalty. He did trust Battousai, and completely; but as it was, Katsura was too practical a person to believe that child prodigies often jumped out of nowhere with a fantastic legendary sword style and ended up in the Kiheitai waiting for him.  
  
It was just...weird.  
  
Previously concealed thoughts came back to him - what if Himura's brother... "that" brother, in fact - was a Shisengumi? A Shogunate kenkaku? If that was the case, this late-at-night meeting could only mean one thing...  
  
...Himura was a spy.  
  
The very thought sent ice cubes sliding down his spine.  
  
The only way to find out...Katsura Kogoro walked straight out to the courtyard, his fear temporarily forgotten. Hiding was merely pointless; the hitokiri's ability to sense ki was undoubtable. For any and every reason he *had* to prove Himura's innocence. No way a pure boy like him could be a traitor.  
  
The short topknot swayed as the Choshu Lord snapped his head up in anticipation, bracing himself for the final answer...  
  
...only to find the assassin standing alone in the courtyard, the soft moonlight washing over his nearly delicate features. If the boy had sensed his superior he didn't show it; his face was half-turned and he seemed to be musing on some distant memory, eyes fixed over the brim of the garden wall far ahead.  
  
Oh hell, he'd missed the guy... Katsura kicked himself mentally.  
  
"Himura?" he inquired softly, wondering at his best hitokiri's insensitivity. Perhaps he was just pretending, that's all.he was pretending to be on a midnight stroll...Katsura didn't want to think along that line. Himura would never lie to him.  
  
Or would he?  
  
An almost inaudible gasp filled the air as Battousai spun around to face his superior. Katsura could hardly believe it. Unless Battousai was delving on some extra-complicated love triangle problem, he *should* be able to sense anyone existing miles around him. He almost smiled at that thought.  
  
Himura, in love? He was still a child, no matter what everyone thought.  
  
And yet he had to burden the heaviest burden of all - this world is full of irony, isn't it?  
  
"Katsura-san! I..." the boy swallowed the "couldn't sense you" back into his stomach, knowing it would make no sense whatsoever. " I was thinking." It seemed like his ki sensing ability was completely lost in this case. // This was *not* looking good. //  
  
Katsura peered closely into his face, making the hitokiri boy shift uncomfortably. "Thinking, huh?" He didn't really dare accusing the boy openly; that could result in Battousai killing him on the spot if he *was* a traitor. Or spy.  
  
// What about the other person earlier on? What about the demolished roof? Would 'thinking' end up in such a disaster? // Suspicion welled up inside him as Battousai blinked guiltily. One hell of a swordsman as he was, the boy was never good at communicating, let alone lying.  
  
// He makes a pathetic spy if anything. // Sighing at Battousai's ludicrous expression of culpability, Katsura felt his anger fading away into curiosity.  
  
"Himura. Is there anything you would like to tell me?" Sincere ebony eyes searched emotion-filled mauve ones, and for once Battousai averted his gaze.  
  
Good. He's even turning away now. What a wonderful liar. Katsura thought, half grim and half mildly amused. "Himura?" he prodded.  
  
"...Nothing, Katsura-san. Nothing. " Battousai told him, not sounding particularly convincing. Or particularly convinced himself.  
  
Deciding that dwelling on this longer might not be beneficial for either of them, Katsura changed his tactics.  
  
"The roof over the corridor was reduced into ruins." Katsura said, more of a question than an actual statement.  
  
"Aa." Replied the boy, not bothering to sound impressed. He rubbed a hand against his temple wearily; he was in no mood for interrogations. Strangely enough, Katsura reminded him of Saitou - how both of them liked to imply crafty half-questions to weasel the truth out of you.  
  
Thinking of Saitou did nothing to relieve the insistent throb stirring in his head. He couldn't come up with any other reply, so common sense informed him it was best to keep silent.  
  
As if it was.  
  
"Anou...Katsura-san, will you please excuse me, I have....some pressing matters to attend to." Battousai bowed uneasily, knowing how impolite and absurd this must sound. He didn't care; maybe part of him was still hoping he could revert to the peaceful Meiji era again. How silly of him.  
  
As his tabi thudded against the well-worn stony floor of the courtyard, Battousai closed his eyes and scowled with his back to Katsura. Any kind of interaction wasn't his intention for the time being. All he wanted was...was....  
  
He didn't know what.  
  
And so the hitokiri trudged slowly back to his assigned room in the inn, not bothering to put any amount of effort at courtesy. He knew the rurouni would be looking for him shortly and that was all he wanted to know.  
  
*~*  
  
He had changed, somehow.  
  
He couldn't say in what way, but plainly Himura was *never* like that.  
  
Katsura was fairly confused. The whole situation was nothing like he'd expected. If Himura was a spy for the Shisengumi, he sure was a horrible one - a boy who didn't even know how to lie.  
  
Maybe he was just being over-suspicious. Everyone had his own secrets, right?  
  
But then -  
  
"What do you think?" the Choshu Lord asked.  
  
A figure materialized in the dark. "Interesting indeed."  
  
"You mean he?" Katsura said, tilting his head towards the way the hitokiri went.  
  
"Aa. Who would know that Hitokiri Battousai is a child in the core?"  
  
"I told you before."  
  
"I didn't believe it - completely."  
  
"I understand, it may be quite - hard to imagine." Katsura said with a regretful sigh.  
  
"You want me to check on him? Make sure he's not a traitor? Though I really doubt it." A general smirk.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Hitokiri don't necessary have to lie. Spies do."  
  
A soft shuffling of the bamboo bushes, before all returned to silence.  
  
And the person was gone.  
  
*~*  
  
" Where the heck would the rurouni go?" Battousai thought idly as he slid through the corridor back to his own room. The whole inn was awake by now; woken up by the big resounding crash resulted by the roof breaking off. As usual no one was in his way (or didn't dare to be), leaving him to brood on his own problems without being disturbed.  
  
What's with his ki sensing ability, anyway? He stopped abruptly in the corridor and shut his eyes, feeling for the warm presence of human ki nearby...anyone's...or at least Katsura's...  
  
No such luck. All he felt was simple emptiness and nothing more.  
  
He glowered at no one in particular. How was he going to fight without his sixth sense? Deciding to leave this for later the hitokiri turned around a corner.  
  
And a shadow extracted itself from the mass of shadows, frowning.  
  
A/U: And again, my usual endings: re-reviews!!  
  
Koe-760-kun: Sorry for not replying to your letter sooner, I was hurrying to get this chapter out - the main reason is that I will be getting my computer cleared of all files in an hour...so I'll have to post this up and quick. ~ Oh, and when I say "ideas are leaking out of my mind like crazy" I sorta mean ideas are now running away before I can pin them to the ground.....*smirk* And then, about your fic, I am so surprised I got Kenshin at the 3rd part! Call me Bakumatsu freak, but I think it'll be really cool if Kenshin can just bring you back there and see how you can survive. Stupid idea, maybe the fic's getting into my head ~! Wah, all that thing....sounds like your spirit got out of your body....and it's actually hard to imagine how you can't remember most of the things in one day, the worst accident I got was when I played basketball and someone tripped me and I broke my wrist. It was in Grade 5 I think, and fortunately it's the left wrist or I'll be dead the whole school year. I think it's really annoying having to be depressed the whole time *sniffles* I can't imagine losing interest in RK, that'd be horrible. Promise me you'll be more careful in horseriding, ne? (And I am sort of a teacher's pet too, but in Maths & Physics lessons I can be horrible...*snicker*  
  
Boomerang-chan-kun: You got an evil virus?!? Is it that recent one mentioned in the news? *bats virus with closed eyes* he's dead, isn't he! I'm sorry I may not be able to update too soon, I havto wash my computer of all files coz it got a bad egg program ...^.^ I'm really sorry for the short chapter! Oh, and I've just discovered you're 2 years younger than I am ~ And now I am accepting Anonymous reviews! I s'pose no one will flame me, ne? You're like Misao-chan aren't you? Full of energy...! Aw, that must have hurt, rolling down the stairs....and speaking of Misao-chan, I've just tried your Character Quiz, and I got Himura Kenshin ( again! I got him in another quiz) You're good! I don't how to create quizs or something.  
  
Liemtenshi-kun: *pouting idly, thinking how you're enjoying the ice rink* it sucks! I have a very stupid English project about stupid questions - on Spirited Away and some other random things, they 're so stupid asking you questions like "Why didn't like ?" It IS stupid! And then some other questions like "What is the difference between fashion and fad?" I think I 'll have to do it however...*resolved with a sigh*  
  
Sapphire-eyes-kun: Again~my story got washed to the fourth page! I really hate that, you know. Anyway, sorry for the shortness of this chapter~ *backing away with a frightened smile* no don't hurt me....  
  
Are-en-kun: *producing a watermelon from nowhere* Oh, I suddenly realized I don't really like tomatoes anymore...*the camera switches and there are BOXES of watermelon down there* OHOHOHOHOHOHO! Anyway, I think it's spelled Bakumatsu...I don't know if I am going to add Tomoe in, I really have no idea where the heck the story's going. ^^ And I am trying to keep events to normal so that things don't change too much~ currently Zenei and his buddies are drinking sake and taking a rest at my home...  
  
Lilfrozenfire-kun: Please continue reading, I'm off for a few days....anyway, plz review! Any comments are appreciated.  
  
LittoGrrlStephanie-kun: Thanks for the review! I hope you continue enjoying the story.  
  
The Sacred Night-kun: About that question, I think -san means either Miss/Mr/Mrs that kind of thing, -chan is for children and for intimate calling but can be insulting as well, -dono is the archaic form of -san. -kun is for friends and something like that, I'm not too sure about this one...^^ In a way I really like WAFF, but not in a yaoi way. I just can't make the two of them fighting each other....  
  
Kandy-kun: Thanks for that! I'll be updating soon - after my computer got ridden of stupid sucking programs that jammed it.  
  
Lucrecia LeVrai-kun: Katsura's gonna be suspicious, and surely Kenshin can't let him know~ thanks for the compliment, I'll be working on it!  
  
CharlieTheOtakuNymph-kun: Please continue reading! 


	10. Readapting Reality

Past and Future By Hitokiri-san  
  
Disclaimers: Yes, if I own RK will I have to go to the stupid school now? I'll be rich beyond measure, and enjoying a holiday in Kawaii.  
  
A/N: Gomen, minna, school is really killing me off! I notice that once school starts, submissions almost came to a stop...all curses for the time- killing energy-taking school life! As Watsuki-san has said, when time and energy is low, imagination dies...now I fully agree with this statement. Am I genius or what? 13 days to update a chapter ~Anyway, please read on!  
  
And another thing to say, I DON'T ACCEPT FLAMES!!! Healthy critiques are absolutely welcome but insults are simply unacceptable. Any flames noted will be deleted and because I've been flamed by an anonymous reviewer I'm not accepting anonymous reviews anymore. I apologize for that.  
  
Ch 11 Readapting Reality  
  
Through the corridor, count to the third shoji, slide open the shoji and go in...everything was automatic now, firmly embedded in Battousai's memory. His attention was nowhere focused on walking - instead, his attention was devoted to sort out the knotty list of problems residing in his head.  
  
That was why he completely missed the person perching on his usual position at the windowsill, looking behind him with an unreadable expression.  
  
"Shh! Close the door, and quick, de gozaru." The rurouni's voice startled Battousai out of his nightmarish reverie. Though utterly surprised, Battousai only glanced at him briefly before closing the shoji with an audible snap.  
  
The alarm carried in the rurouni's voice was not lost on the boy. Forcing questions back into his stomach he turned over, facing his older counterpart properly.  
  
Battousai now knew why the rurouni was able to wait for him in the room without fear of anyone barging in. The rurouni had changed into a spare navy uniform of the Ishin, arranged his hair into a topknot, and deftly arranged his bangs so that the cross scar could be partially hidden. Anyone entering would think he was Battousai.  
  
Still, there was a chance that somebody would see the two of them at once...  
  
The rurouni beckoned the boy forward, whispering as quietly as possible. "You're being followed."  
  
Battousai tensed up, laying a hand on his katana. Losing his sixth sense was a real pain-in-the-ass, frank to be said - it was making him extra- jumpy. He didn't enjoy the prospect of being followed; that amateur taking advantage of his temporary insensitivity was going to pay with his life.  
  
The rurouni laid a hand on his shoulder, refraining him from barging out of the room. The hitokiri boy glared at him with a what-the-hell-is-wrong look, annoyed. Nonetheless he obeyed the unspoken command, though moving to the side of the shouji lest the enemy decided on a surprise attack.  
  
The moments stretched on, consisting only of the two warriors' even breathing. Battousai strained his ears for a signal - a wooden tile creaking, or else the masked sound of footfall - but to no avail; the enemy obviously knew better than blundering into a hitokiri's den. The hitokiri boy cursed under his breath at a sudden thought.  
  
// Zenei? // he questioned the rurouni with his eyes.  
  
The rurouni met his gaze and looked away, apparently unsure of the answer. The boy raised his brows, pondering the possibility. Just how many people could intrude the Ishin headquarters without sounding off an alarm, anyway?  
  
//Well, that's it. What are we going to do now? // Kenshin mused, knowing his younger self's thoughts without asking. He originally intended to sort things out with Battousai before coming to a two-sided agreement about the Time issue; the whole change of circumstances was nothing to be expected. Zenei appearing at the moment was probably the last thing he could wish for.  
  
Or is that so? A sneering voice in his mind nagged. You'd *love* to stay here, yeah right. Staying with Battousai and your nightmares and your mistakes...  
  
Kenshin flinched. Okay, that had gone too far for his liking.  
  
In the corner of his eyes he saw Battousai mouthing the word "concentrate". Apparently he had been momentarily distracted by the morbid thought he had, forgetting whatever tasks he had at hand.  
  
Fairly embarrassed the wanderer extended his ki power beyond the walls, trying to keep track of the intruder...  
  
...Only to lose the sense of his presence.  
  
// Shinmatte!// the rurouni thought, a bead of sweat rolling down his forehead. He couldn't have gone so quickly, I was only thinking for a fraction of a second...  
  
Both redheads froze for a millisecond, hearts thudding painfully against their chests. Without a warning, the wanderer leapt out of the window, twisting to land soundlessly on the roof. Battousai followed suit, bracing himself for the worst.  
  
"What...." the younger samurai found his counterpart facing nothing but the darkness of night.  
  
The rurouni frowned slightly, a look of pure puzzlement on his face. "Whoever it was.is fast. Very fast indeed." Bending down on the fragile roof with catlike grace Kenshin moved to retrieve something tucked securely under a piece of tile.  
  
An envelope.  
  
With his hitokiri instincts on alert Battousai batted his hand away. "Don't. You never know if it's...you know." Pushing the rurouni backwards, he hooked the envelope on the tip of his katana and gave it a little shake. When it didn't explode or do anything a normal envelope should not, the hitokiri boy scrutinized it closely. It bore only one word, addressed in the middle and nicely written.  
  
"Battousai."  
  
"Let's get down first." Battousai furrowed his brows, uncomfortable to be exposed on a rooftop with an "unidentified sibling" at his side.  
  
"Okay."  
  
"What is this all about?" The hitokiri was slicing the seal off with a careful yet steady stroke, severing the bindings with suspicion.  
  
"..." the rurouni crossed his arms, still alert. "Sessha has a bad feeling about this."  
  
"So do I." Battousai admitted tightly, now hooking a folded paper out of the envelope while pinning the said envelope to the floor with his tabi.  
  
The paper was laid out eventually, and it was a moment before both Himuras could register what it meant.  
  
" Beware. Traitors deserve tenchu." The kanji were written in a bold, firm style; nonetheless carrying a sense of foreboding.  
  
"Traitors deserve tenchu?" Battousai repeated blankly, arching a brow. " What the hell is it trying to tell us." He looked from the paper to his literal sibling, unable to comprehend the terse wordings of the so-called "warning letter".  
  
"Tenchu...." the rurouni muttered, preoccupied. Perking his had upwards, he informed Battousai calmly, "the person is Ishinshishi. Only we use the term tenchu." Battousai nodded in agreement, but a troubled looked came over his eyes at this.  
  
The rurouni glanced at the younger Himura, sobering. "Is there anyone you met, or anything you did after sessha's departure?"  
  
The hitokiri cocked his head. "I...I met Katsura-san." He heard a whispered "oh" coming from the wanderer.  
  
"Did he happen to see...sessha?"  
  
"Heck, how should I know? My ki sensing ability is somehow dulled by all this time traveling. I don't know why." The hitokiri boy rebutted, his temper already fraying by the long list of questions.  
  
"Nani?" the violet eyes widened briefly before narrowing in concentration. " It will come back in time, de gozaru. Demo...if there's a possibility that Katsura-san could have seen us, or worse hear our conversation...."  
  
Battousai understood the severity of this. "What would it look to him? A midnight meeting in such a secluded place with a sibling that had never been known to exist?" Thus the meaning of the simple sentence was now made clear.  
  
Both paled.  
  
"Don't tell me Katsura-san is having suspicion on me." Battousai clasped a hand to his forehead, closing his eyes in anguish.  
  
"You can't blame him. It *does* look suspicious, de gozaru." The rurouni replied consolingly, propping his chin up with his hand.  
  
Battousai glared at him, looking like a child about to throw a tantrum. " The heck of this is suspicious! How on earth are we going to smooth this out?"  
  
A blank stare.  
  
The manslayer cursed under his breath about some pea-brained rurouni before stopping in mid-sentence.  
  
"Wait."  
  
"Huh?" the rurouni inquired, rather taken aback at his abrupt stop.  
  
"This.doesn't look right."  
  
The rurouni inclined his head to one side, waiting for Battousai to elaborate his point.  
  
Battousai tapped a finger on the wooden floor, appearing thoughtful as if he was wondering how to put it in words. "Don't you think it's a bit of a....giveaway to use the word tenchu, when this is evidently a warning letter? It's as if he's telling us 'I am Ishin, and I'm branding you as traitor.' "  
  
It took a moment for the rurouni to get that. Finally he nodded agreeably, a dazed look crossing his features. " Yeah, and in addition, the traditional way of getting rid of a traitor is to tear him apart immediately, not drop a letter telling him to turn over a new leaf." He smirked a bit at the deadly humor.  
  
" Which means..."  
  
"Yes, that's it, de gozaru." The wanderer caught the wide-eyed look of realization and approved it.  
  
*~*  
  
The words couldn't make their way into his brain.  
  
Yes, his eyes did well to register them, but the brain was way too occupied to take in any particle of them.  
  
It was just a mess of dotted black on a white background, and....  
  
... ..a blinding daze of anger...  
  
Katsura snatched up the paper he was supposed to be reading and threw it away as far as possible, his brows arching skywards in unveiled murderous anger.  
  
Liar.  
  
Anyone catching a look of him at the moment would be terrified senseless. The soft-spoken, smiling Katsura Kogoro reduced to venting his anger on an innocent piece of paper... and then, of course, Katsura wouldn't have anyone seeing him this way. A leader was supposed to be calm, cool, amiable yet firm in his commands. That, was why Katsura always reserved a space for this mask of unwavering confidence.  
  
Wasn't it the same with Himura? A cold, emotionless mask reserved for the strongest of hitokiris - that was one reason why Katsura rarely felt intimidated by that look.  
  
Speaking of Himura....  
  
The Choshu Lord resisted the powerful inclination to knock the entirety of leather-bound books from his private bookshelf. Himura had lied to him. *Lied*. It was frustrating, maddening, anything...  
  
He didn't know whether to trust him again. Or maybe he should.eliminate him?  
  
A humorless smile. Okay, that was too extreme. Still -  
  
Wasn't it the best treatment for traitors? No matter what Takehashi had said, Katsura was starting to have doubts about the boy. All previous impressions he had of Himura- innocent, naïve, pure.were swept into the background as burning rage fueled his mind.  
  
The only one free of any chance of betrayal.....  
  
But, frank to be said, betrayal *was* a popular game in the Bakumatsu. No matter how one strived to clear the clan of spies, they existed like rats; killing one off served nothing to stem the swarming flow of another horde of them.  
  
Chikusho...  
  
"My lord?" a timid, feminine voice managed to rid Katsura of the scathing hatred for one single second.  
  
Kogoro willed his breathing to become even, plastering the aforementioned mask on his face. "Come in, Ilkumatsu."  
  
The shouji was pushed open gently. A dainty pair of feet stepped in, then stopping hesitantly at one look on the Lord's face.  
  
"My lord." Ilkumatsu repeated delicately, looking at him with a hint of concern in her voice. "Is something bothering you?"  
  
Katsura blinked, the feigned pleasantness fading into surprise. "Am I transparent or what?"  
  
Ilkumatsu's lips curved into a small smile, though the worried look returned within a millisecond. "What is it?"  
  
Resigning with a sigh, Katsura told her the entire story - his worries, his views, even his hurt of being betrayed, mingled in his words and hardly detectable - except for the perceptive ears of his lover.  
  
He was, to say, completely flustered when Ilkumatsu responded with nothing but a accepting smile on her face. She didn't look remotely ruffled, or angered as any sensible man...ah, and woman, of course...would.  
  
"What do you have to say about this, anata?"  
  
"I am a woman, and know nothing of spies and traitors. Why don't we wait for Takehashi-san to tell us what *he* sees in earnest?" her eyes glittered with a mysterious knowingness that Katsura, with his practical mode, could not do so much as decipher.  
  
There was an old saying - " those in the labyrinth got misled by it, but those out of it stays somber." Deprived of an analytical side that is the trademark of the male, Ilkumatsu had made up with, somehow, the strange sense of "knowing without reason" that we had come to call "the sixth sense of womankind."  
  
The young lord sighed and complied, knowing he could never guess what a woman thinks, Choshu Lord or no.  
  
"Takehashi." A knock on the side window brought Katsura's attention to the spy he had sent against Himura.  
  
"Katsura-san. Ilkumatsu-san." The reply was prompt as the slim figure slid down from the high windowsill. He removed a headband from his forehead, letting down a stream of ink-black bangs. The hazel eyes hidden behind the cover of his bangs were dampened with mental exhaustion. Brushing at a dangling tendril in front of his face he bowed; waiting for information to be extracted from him.  
  
"Takehashi. Tell me, *what* is Himura up to?"  
  
"Sir, Himura-san is indeed meeting someone at his room." He riveted his gaze outside for a mere moment, an unreadable expression crossing his face.  
  
Katsura scowled under his pleasant mask, tensing. "And the person will be?"  
  
Takehashi frowned, tapping his pointed chin with a finger. "It's weird, actually."  
  
The Ishin leader raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to continue.  
  
" In a sense, Himura-san was perfectly unaware of my presence, which worked out fine, but.his ki....felt...almost inhuman."  
  
"Hm?"  
  
"I couldn't put my finger on it, but there was as if something vital is missing from his person."  
  
Katsura glimpsed at Ilkumatsu, then back at Takehashi again.  
  
"I do not understand."  
  
"Neither does I, sir. But that is irrelevant to the current situation." Takehashi concluded, holding a rather faraway look in his eyes that suggested otherwise. Luckily, Katsura was too absorbed to notice that look.  
  
Ilkumatsu, however, spotted it and pursed her lips for a little.  
  
"I agree. Go on." The Choshu leader prodded.  
  
"Hai." The young spy rejoined mildly, "however, I seemed to have underestimated the ki sensibility of both Battousai and his companion. Himura seemly was totally unable to notice my presence, which, as I now think, might have been an act."  
  
"And the other one?"  
  
"That is the strange part. Unlike Himura he sensed me right away, so I retreated over the rooftop." Takehashi continued fluently. And placed a note there for them, he added mentally. He really hoped Himura-san and his companion had the minimum intelligence to understand the hidden message behind the threatening words. He could have written it plainer; but part of him yearned to test if the notorious Himura Battousai lived up to his reputation.  
  
So he made the whole thing a lot more complex than necessary. The letter - its sole purpose was to warn the Battousai, to tell him it was really stupid and suspicious to have another unidentified person around; and even more stupid and dangerous to lie to Katsura Kogoro. A little piece of suspicion might as well end up in brutal murder, especially for that particular post - which required full loyalty to the master.  
  
Himura, he decided, was more naïve than he looked. Put it in other words - he was being a thickskulled idiot. Takehashi had known, at first look, that Himura was nowhere near to being a spy. It would take a lot more than those sputtering and influent lying to become a spy; Takehashi himself had known that well. But it was far more difficult to convince the Ishin Lord, as Himura really *had* a foreigner in his room.  
  
If he didn't help Himura, he wasn't sure what Katsura would do to the idiot, eventually.  
  
Takehashi was so caught in his own worries he nearly missed the approving little wink directed to him by Ilkumatsu. He tried to keep an amused smile rising up to his lips. Heck, that would look like he was flirting with the lady.  
  
// Impressive, // the spy thought, a little awestruck. // She knew exactly what I have been doing behind Katsura-san. Trust it to a woman to see through the back of your head. //  
  
Katsura was looking down on the tatami mat, thinking quietly to himself. The story didn't exactly make sense, but he could trust it was the truth. After all, Takehashi was the only other person he trusted beside Himura, Katasugi and Katagai.  
  
Talk about trusting Himura....  
  
"So you haven't got a good look at the secret guest Himura is having?"  
  
"No, it would have risked blowing my cover." The young spy answered seriously, still feeling a little amused.  
  
Katsura agreed, though feeling fairly disappointed. "If that is the case, you can go now."  
  
"Do I need to follow him further?" Takehashi inquired, knowing full well what the answer would be.  
  
"No,'' Katsura said, "if he can sense you it would look highly suspicious that an unknown person is able to barge into the Ishin headquarters every two days or so. We will discuss this later."  
  
"I agree, sir." Takehashi said, relieved. If he continued stalking Himura this way he knew the young hitokiri would skewer him sooner or later.  
  
The young spy bowed and turned to leave, rebinding the headband onto his head as he did so.  
  
He didn't miss the sly gleam in Ilkumatsu's eyes as he passed her by.  
  
*~*  
  
A/U: Well, so that's it. Unimaginative, huh? Believe me, I'm slowly dying off from all those teacher droning in my ears = ^ . ^ = I'm sorry, but from now on I will only reply to reviewers last chapter. It is mainly due to lack of time, and I hope minna can forgive me! De gozaru! And I'll accumulate the reviews to next chapter...too domn lazy... 


	11. Two Faces

Past and Future by Hitokiri-san  
  
Disclaimers: Do you think I can draw such ugly, pervert, nonsensical, confusing, disgusting, appetite-taking comic such as RK? *Authoress got hung by furious RK fans* Okay, so I am joking. If I do hate RK, what am I spending three months on this stupid fanfic for?!  
  
Authoress' notes: SCHOOL-DOES-KILL. All of you should remember that. School kills creativity and time. School sucks. School denies my update! Kill school, not me, for update at the rate of a snail! ^^  
  
Chapter 12 Two Faces  
  
Time works like a river - never stopping, never ceasing. Every drop of water goes simultaneously; some drifting straight on, some embracing the surface of lying pebbles on the riverbed before leaving them behind.  
  
Thus as two redheaded warriors were looking worriedly out of the wooden- framed window of a room in an inn in Kyoto in the Bakumatsu, a policeman was being cursed in his office in a police station in Tokyo in the Meiji era.  
  
"Damn you, Saitou!"  
  
Not again -  
  
Saitou had already lost count of how many times the ex-gangster had been using this particular phrase. It wasn't that Sagara Sanosuke had no other curses to offer; but cursing a single person for four consecutive hours tends to run vocabularies out, like it or no.  
  
Saitou grimaced mentally. If damning could send a person down to hell he was sure he would be falling deeper than the nine hells right now. Pretending to be ignoring the ruckus, the notorious ex-Wolf of Mibu concentrated on the report laid on his worktable. It would preserve his coolness, he knew; plus - further aggravating the tori-atama wasn't that bad an idea.  
  
"Damn you, Sai -"  
  
" Get out of here," the Miburo told him serenely, never looking up from his report. "I don't know where Battousai is."  
  
// Damn you, Battousai. The two of you just disappeared into thin air and left me to deal with these villains. // His lips twitched a bit, a humourless smirk. Maybe damning people wasn't that unpopular after all.  
  
"He was with you, you psycho of a policeman!" Misao snapped. She'd been contacted the moment Kenshin and his so-called "brother" had disappeared, being concerned for her friend's safety. Of course, Himura Kenshin just wasn't the type of guy to fall through a hole and die - which could only prove that he was currently in some serious trouble.  
  
"And you think I'll buy that?" the rooster-head struck again.  
  
"Yeah, you great lying bastard!" Yahiko added, fuming.  
  
Saitou didn't bother answering. He spared a glance towards the other three occupants of his office - the tanuki, the weasel, even the spiky-haired boy. The girl he knew as Kaoru was mostly silent, but the latter two was simply...annoying. Not to mention their serious attempt to drown the ex- Shisengumi with silly questions - which mainly concerned the redheads' whereabouts - they'd been constantly rambling on with threats and curses and screeched strings of words like some devilish triplex.  
  
He was just having enough. He glared up a trifle, ready to Gatotsu them out of his office.  
  
"Sanosuke, Yahiko, Misao-chan; we will go now." A soft-spoken voice startled the trio out of their joined accusation.  
  
"Kaoru?" Misao asked uncertainly, "but...he..." she pointed a finger towards the wolf, annoyance surfacing in her voice.  
  
"Let's go," the tanuki girl repeated patiently, looking reasonably - but horrifyingly - calm. " He truly does not where Kenshin is. Any amount of interrogation will not help." Not waiting for her wide-eyed companions' answer, the blue-eyed girl bowed and turned for the exit.  
  
The other three exchanged bewildered glances.  
  
And Saitou grimaced inwardly at the old trick replayed. He watched the small group make their departure, most of them throwing dirty glances at him. He didn't care; there was nothing he could tell them - save for the fact that Battousai suddenly vanished through the wall, Kenshin disintegrated into transparency, and the guy named Zenei Makimoto screamed in anguish and disappeared from sight as well.  
  
Which left a single Saitou Hajime to deal with all the fuss caused.  
  
To tell them that wouldn't be productive. Oh no, not at all.  
  
The wolf wondered for a moment where both forms of Himura Kenshin were currently. While theoretically the duo could be anywhere in anytime in this world or even become nonexistent, Saitou found himself reluctant to accept this. What's theoretically correct is usually practically useless, and the prospect of the two redheads going back or forth in time freely was just...  
  
...goddamn weird.  
  
Frank to say, the Mibu wolf knew the Zenei guy would soon catch up with the stupid rurouni, like it or no. Battousai belonged to the Bakumatsu, and Rurouni Himura Kenshin should be in the Meiji era...  
  
Cursing both the rurouni and the hitokiri absently, the Miburo resettled himself behind the heaps of files sitting on his desk.  
  
Battousai could take care of himself.  
  
Those reports couldn't.  
  
*~*  
  
Year 1863, Genji 1st year  
  
Both Kenshin and Battousai felt the abrupt inclination to sneeze.  
  
Blinking in mild surprise, the two samurai turned away from each other and covered their mouths.  
  
"AHHH-CHU!"  
  
"Gomen." The word was said in unison. This elicited a smirk from each other.  
  
"Strange. Someone must have been talking about us." Battousai murmured absentmindedly, wiping his mouth on the sleeve of his haori. "Now, where were we just now?"  
  
"Um...sessha was just telling you about what we shouldn't do here, in order not to alter history. " The rurouni said solemnly, forgetting about the momentary interception. He raised a brow as Battousai unceremoniously tried to stifle a yawn.  
  
"Sessha is serious."  
  
"I know, I know," Battousai dismissed his older counterpart's scowl with a wave of his hand. "It's just that you've repeated that at least ten times over."  
  
"You don't understand how important this..."  
  
"I do! Remember, I can think of everything that comes into your mind. " The hitokiri sobered all of a sudden, voice serious and steady. " I mean we should be talking about what we *should* do, not passively waiting for something to happen!"  
  
"Sessha never said we should sit here and wait." The rurouni countered calmly.  
  
"The fact that you're thinking about how *not* to alter history indicates that you expected to be staying here, at least for a while." Battousai retorted, equally sober.  
  
Kenshin's mouth dropped open. He'd never considered it from this angle before... and it seemed, miraculously, that Battousai did have a point. Never the sort of person to deny his fault, the rurouni nodded agreeably.  
  
The hitokiri smiled, the tiniest bit of a smile. Kenshin noticed that somehow since their abrupt arrival in the Bakumatsu, Battousai had instantly dropped the half-boyish-half-serious manner he acquired in the meager few days in Meiji, slipping subconsciously into his previous impassive mask once more. After that, he barely smiled - that knowledge did nothing to relieve the leaden knot residing in Kenshin's stomach.  
  
Battousai shifted his stance, the slightest hint that he was uneasy, " now, the first thing we should solve now is...the Time problem." Kenshin blinked; he knew it, and Battousai knew it as well. They belonged to two different worlds and have different responsibilities to bear, one day or the other they would have to make a decision about this deadlock with Zenei. Both did not hold the illusion that they would be undetectable to the man known as Time - if he could find them the previous time it shouldn't make any difference this time.  
  
The hitokiri boy chuckled softly at the wanderer's reaction, a feeling of resigned acceptance mingling with the hope he felt for the other, " I've come to a decision. I'll stay here - yes, here, in the Bakumatsu. Zenei is right. This is where I should be. And someday I'll move on. Someday I will find true happiness, like you did."  
  
From the way the rurouni paled unbelievingly, Kenshin knew just how much it cost the boy to say that. The wish to stay in the Meiji era had became so strong for Battousai it was almost a lust; and here he was, saying that he would give it all up forever.  
  
Kenshin was shocked to the core. Before he knew what he was saying, he clutched onto his younger self's arm. "No! I promise you, sessha will bring you back to the Meiji era no matter ..."  
  
He stopped instinctively as Battousai narrowed his eyes in hard determination. "Iie. I never know rurouni Himura Kenshin is such a selfish, uncaring character. The rurouni I know wouldn't have dared to put his family at risk." His steely voice softened considerably, now mingled with a bittersweet quality.  
  
" Whenever you are with her, know that I will always be happy for you, no matter where I am or what I'm facing. Okay?" The question was abruptly spoken.  
  
A spasm of pain flashed through the rurouni's features, but he forced his face to a smile. "If that is your decision, sessha accept that." He ruffled the boy's hair, the slightest show of affection.  
  
// I just hope you won't have to go through that again. But then, that hope is futile and I know it. //  
  
And both Hiten warriors exchanged a smile, so weathered with dark knowledge and grieve.  
  
Fate had assigned Himura Kenshin as the living sacrifice to the Kami.  
  
The sacrifice in question, now multiplied by two, just smiled through it as though it was nothing.  
  
*~*  
  
At the Shisengumi base, a young man looked down at his reflection pensively. With ink black hair and pale features, he was as innocent looking as Okita Souji himself.  
  
But those eyes...  
  
They were a warm, non-threatening hazel color, that was true; but in the light-brownish orbs there was too much information, too much noted and observed - all of other people, all hidden and shoved away, except for his observant eyes.  
  
Those were not the eyes of a killer. They were eyes of a spy.  
  
// No. //  
  
Takehashi rubbed his eyes again. When he opened them again, what he saw in the water was a guiltless, inexperienced boy with sparkling eyes. Actually, the spy was over twenty years of age, but heaven had granted him with a pair of large, expressive eyes; enough to trick anyone into believing he was just an ordinary green boy.  
  
For that alone, he was grateful.  
  
"Taku?"  
  
Takehashi nearly jumped out of his skin at the mention of his cover name. That was when spy training came in useful - he turned around with a mildly surprised look, barely moving his shoulders.  
  
"Nagakura gumi-chou!" Takehashi exclaimed, looking pleasantly surprised as he whipped around from his spot. He cursed mentally. What was the Shinsengumi Second Troop Captain doing there? From his experience, this wooden shack was a really concealed place to accidentally step a foot in.  
  
"Taku, what are you doing here?" Nagakura raised an eyebrow, looking slightly intimidating.  
  
Takehashi was too experienced a spy to actually say "nothing". His mind spinning quickly, the spy pretended to be shy all of a sudden. "Erm...gumi- chou...I'm planning to meet someone here."  
  
"Who?" the tone had softened considerably, thus Takehashi's plan had succeeded. Nagakura obviously had the delusion that spies won't ever admit they're spies.  
  
"...Osuko." Was the first name he could come up with. Osuko was a maid working at the headquarters; a pretty one nonetheless. What's more, Takehashi knew precisely that the girl liked him. That made for the best cover story in this situation.  
  
He waited, head down and cheeks red.  
  
Nagakura smirked.  
  
"You fancy her, don't you?" Nagakura teased his young interior. Taku was a naïve boy who'd never known the true meaning of battle, but was single- minded and willing to learn. Rather a simpleton, actually. The young man had come up for the Shisengumi tryout and passed the test easily; therefore, Nagakura had chosen him for his squad specifically. A background check proved that this "Taku" was indeed an Aizu samurai, the second son of his family. His whole name was -  
  
- Taku Ikasaki.  
  
"Gumi-chou!" Takehashi turned extremely red. Pretending to purposefully change the subject, he inquired, "Gumi-chou, what are you doing here?"  
  
Another smirk, taunting in nature.  
  
" Checking if you are a spy or not," Nagakura informed him placidly.  
  
Takehashi blanched internally; but he stuck out his tongue in mock fear, seeing that it was only a joke.  
  
Nagakura laughed, patting the young man on the shoulder in an affectionate way.  
  
"See ya then, boy. Don't want me to spoil your sweet time, do you?"  
  
Takehashi performed a ninety-degree bow, neat and pleasing to the eye. With a hearty chuckle the Shisengumi Second Troop Captain turned away from the shack.  
  
Takehashi sighed, trying to calm the butterflies assaulting the inside of his stomach. That - was - close.  
  
Such, was the nature of his job.  
  
*~*  
  
Authoress' notes: With no further ado, re-reviews!  
  
Koe-760-kun: Heh! Sorry for not replying to your email, I am *koe760 glares* Anyway, I think your Kenshin angel pic is really...really...*consults diary* strange, but cute. The wings don't seem to attach to his back, however...lol! You-promised! A pic! I want it now, and I mean now! *mean glower* if you're not sending it over I'll never update the fic again, right! You know what to do! Sorry that I can't give you a full sized hitokiri-san photo, but my body shape is horrible and I'll probably smash the camera if it ever thinks about taking my full sized photo...anyway, as I forgot to mention, the bluish thing I wear in the photo is the school uniform, the round thing is the school badge! Must be weird looking, ne?  
  
CeeCee-kun: Lol! I ate my word! You should be updating your 2nd chap before I update this ~ and...*facefault* I have no idea I sent the wrong material to you...that is my English summer assignment concerning Spirited Away and I was sorta thinking "what are you talking about?" Yare yare...I'll send you the REAL one later. Yes Yes, as you've probably found out in this chapter, Takehashi is an Ishin spy planted at the Shisengumi! And I actually did some historical research this chapter...*facefaults again* Ack, you're living in New Jersey, not California? Well I guess I got it mixed up @_@  
  
Liemtenshi-chan ( want me to call you nee-chan? Now way! ^^): So, you're back finally! When you moved I was still having summer holiday but now...sigh! I'm glad you are back! You gotta go to the ice rink someday, that'll be real nice! (bring me too, lol, but I have a anti-strangling collar on my neck) And school's killing me! All those General meetings, on duties, lessons, homework....*hitokiri-san fall dead* Anyway, see you next chap!  
  
The Sacred Night-kun: I'm sooooo glad you like the stupid story! Y'know, last chapter really annoys me for some reason ~ Ah, and one thing, I've read you new story! History Behind the History! I like it so much, you should continue at all cost ~ I adore Bakumatsu fics so much.... 


	12. The Bond Of Secrecy

Past and Future By Hitokiri-san  
  
Authoress' note: F-I-N-A-L-L-Y. I'm sorry. Two months for a chapter? Jesus. But contrary to common believe I'm still considered alive, so bear with me, ne? I think I'll be off until December due to my mid-year exam, which galls me to no end. I would like to greet my old readers again! Especially: Koe- san, who is a great artist and a great friend; CeeCee-san, my fellow Chinese writer and a fantastic one at that; are-en-san; who moved me very much by putting me on her Author Alert list; B-chan-san, a Misao-chan reborn; liemtenshi-san, who is going to trip at the ice rink *ouch!*; and the sacred night-san, who astonished me by her fic "History behind the History". At last, Lucrecia Levrai-san, who is a real great support to me! I know I owe you all a re-review but...*sneaky smile* gomen nasai!  
  
The wooden shack would no longer be a safe place to meet the man, Takehashi decided. He waited till the footsteps of his "Gumi-chou" had died away, then followed out of the shack like a soundless shadow. Attaining the air of a blushing boy meeting his lover for good measure, he crept away from the winding cobblestone path and into the shelter of the garden bushes.  
  
A pair of ebony eyes followed him as he leapt past the garden wall before they, too, vanished into the darkness of the night.  
  
And tonight, Kami decided, would be the night when the paths of spies, samurai and hitokiri cross.  
  
*~*  
  
He tapped his foot softly, growing uneasy.  
  
From his spy knowledge he knew being alone in the street at the dead of the night wasn't what you call "wise". Heck, even common civilians know about that one - thus the street was completely deserted.  
  
Takehashi shrank into the shadow, waiting. He should be passing this way. No, he *would* be passing this way, there's no doubt about it. And if he didn't - well, may the devils blast him for goodness' sake.  
  
As if on cue, a dark figure emerged from the end of the street, careful and silent.  
  
But not careful enough.  
  
Before the person knew what was happening, a hand had grabbed him from the side - into the shade of the row of houses. Horror struck him, not fear for his life, but for his mission...  
  
// I cannot die, I have to deliver the news to Takehashi, I promised him that...//  
  
With much vigor he attempted to unsheathe his katana, only to be stopped by a firm hand pushing the hilt back into the sheath.  
  
"Baka, it's me." A voice muttered softly.  
  
"Takehashi - ?"  
  
Takehashi nodded, but noted immediately that the man couldn't see it with his back turned to him.  
  
"Shut up and follow me." The man scowled irritably, but decided to save it for later. Takehashi sprinted off towards an alley, the other following closely behind. One wrong turn and the damned spy would be gone like the wind, he knew; and unfortunately Takehashi just didn't have the considerate habit of waiting for his comrades.  
  
Curse him, then.  
  
Just as the man was thinking about inconsiderate comrades Takehashi skidded to a halt in front of an alley stuck with wooden planks and other varieties of objects, then jumped cleanly over the ten-feet-high stack without hesitation.  
  
The man cursed softly in earnest. Apparently thoughtfulness *was* really a foreign idea to Takehashi. He in turn glared sullenly at the stack. What did Takehashi think he was, Hitokiri Battousai? He might not be such a fantastic spy like Takehashi, but at least he knew his abilities - there was no way, none on earth, that he could jump over that whole stack without falling flat on his face.  
  
A small laugh traveled down from above him. He looked up; Takehashi was perching on the brim of the roof, extending a helping hand. The man scowled; then took up the offer and held on to his outstretched hand.  
  
"You're a bastard, Takehashi."  
  
The spy just laughed, stifling it a bit as not to wake whoever sleeping in the houses near them.  
  
"You're going to be a bastard for the rest of your life," the man added with a smile.  
  
*~*  
  
Two men lurking in the covers of a dark alley; the strangest and most dangerous place one could think of going at this hour. But close by nothing stirred and all was well; Takehashi knew that the place was a blind spot free of Shisengumi patrols.  
  
"So, Himura's secret guest has just disappeared into nowhere?" Takehashi sat cross-legged on the granite floor, frowning lightly. That wasn't expected at all. He had bid the man to keep a close watch on Himura; and from the reports the windows in the Battousai's room were constantly shut - not even opened once. And he never came out from his room. Knowing Himura as a self-effacing man, the spy wasn't at all surprised by all these - what intrigued him was one question only.  
  
Where did the other person - the so-called Himura's brother - go?  
  
Well, as reluctant as Takehashi was to admit it, those Ishinshishi warriors did at least have something called eyes. It was okay for Himura himself, but anyone that was unidentified couldn't just stroll around the headquarters like that. Someone would at least have stopped him for an investigation.  
  
"Unless he's a twin brother?" Takehashi suggested after a moment of pensive silence.  
  
"Huh?" His companion blinked; a funny look crossing his features. "And your point is?"  
  
Takehashi pondered solemnly. "S'pose our Himura-san got a twin brother who's a...well, anything - who will know the difference if that twin just walk around the place with a Ishin uniform, ne?" he wondered at his own stupidity in missing that point.  
  
"No," the man rejected thoughtfully, drawing a slanting finger across his own face, "he would't have the scar."  
  
"Good point."  
  
"But, who will notice?" a freezing voice penetrated from the shadows.  
  
A gleam of silver, a strand of redness caught in the faraway light of a lantern.  
  
Mauve eyes, sparkling with unknown emotions.  
  
Both man jumped up from their leisurely postures, reaching for their weapons. Both watched as Battousai approached, sword out and stepping forward with swift ease.  
  
Seeing who it was, Takehashi released his grip on the sword hilt. "So you've finally come."  
  
"It's you on the roof that night, then." Battousai stared at him with a completely blank look, his features betraying not a trace of his emotions, "so what do you want?"  
  
Takehashi smiled, a challenging look in his eyes. "You should have understood that letter, Himura-san."  
  
"I understand it completely."  
  
"So why are you asking me this question?" Takehashi inquired good- naturedly.  
  
"You misunderstood my question. I was asking - what do you want from helping me?" Battousai replied calmly.  
  
Takehashi was taken aback.  
  
"What do I want?" he repeated blankly, "just to avoid the hitokiri from getting killed, Battousai-san."  
  
Battousai scowled mentally at the emphasis of his nickname.  
  
"And how, may I ask, would you benefit from this?"  
  
"Ah, Himura-san! Have being a hitokiri tainted your mind that badly? I don't think you'd believe it if I tell you that I helped you for a little goodwill, ne?" Takehashi cocked his head amiably.  
  
Battousai returned his katana into the saya with an audible snap. "No, I don't. I don't trust anyone...except dead people." The hitokiri answered candidly, "Betrayal is, indeed, the most popular game in these times. I, for one, am not falling for it."  
  
"You will either say your real purpose or receive my judgment." He concluded coolly, staring straight into the spy's hazel eyes.  
  
Takehashi clapped enthusiastically. "Fitting words for a hitokiri, Himura- san. Except that I have no other real answers to offer." He stared back at the smaller samurai, ignoring the inky bangs that tickled his face. Takehashi was willing the hitokiri to believe him, a task that was deemed almost impossible. Being trusting meant offering your life to a potential enemy, and working as a hitokiri certainly was no help.  
  
Himura would never trust another person completely...save one particular one.  
  
To everyone's great surprise, Battousai brushed his bangs and smiled, a faint smile. "Are you sure you don't want to offer those fantastic answers of yours, spy-san?"  
  
Takehashi blinked in ultimate surprise; then his features quickly returned to their previous innocence.  
  
"Eh?"  
  
Battousai smiled pleasantly. "Don't play innocent with me, spy-san. I have seen many a spy before. Your stance, your words, your eyes..." he left the comment hanging in the air for a while, "all resembles a spy."  
  
Takehashi shrugged in a so-what style, sobering. Playing naïve was pointless for now. "Himura-san - I would like to ask you a question."  
  
Battousai knew the answer. " Yes?"  
  
" I'll be blunt. Where's your brother?"  
  
"You must mean sessha." Another figure appeared beside Battousai, smiling disarmingly.  
  
Hazel eyes widened before returned to their normal size. "So...what is your business in the Ishin headquarters?" this question was directed at the rurouni.  
  
The rurouni blinked - that was a good point.  
  
Seeing that he had no intention of answering, Takehashi merely shrugged. "Well, I won't force it out of you. It isn't my business anyway."  
  
" *I* am quite interested in your business, however." Said Battousai, frowning slightly. "It doesn't make sense. Why'd you help me?"  
  
The inquiry didn't manage to ruffle Takehashi's pleasant-as-ever exterior. "A thickskulled idiot deserves at least a little bit of help...in this case a *pair* of thickskulled idiots."  
  
He laughed softly. Battousai looked like he was going to pull off a Ryu Tsui Sen anytime soon.  
  
*~*  
  
The lanterns swayed; ebony eyes trailed up to the top of the tall piled-up boards.  
  
"Well well well...look what we have here." A voice muttered, young and cheerful. A less sensitive man would never have noticed the serious note in his tone. " A stack-up of such height...one would have expected a Ishinshishi base behind."  
  
It was a joke, but in the meantime he was serious. Thus none of his group did so much as chuckle.  
  
"Gumi-chou?" one of his men indicated the stack-up. "Shall we pull it down?"  
  
A flicker of a presence flitted through the wooden boards and into the captain's mind.  
  
Okita Souji smiled cheerily. "Oh no we don't. We shall make a temporary alliance with these piles.  
  
*~*  
  
The ghastly feeling of a ken-ki. It was undetectable, more a feeling than an actual sense. Maybe their minds were kidding them...  
  
Or maybe not.  
  
Battousai noticed that his three companions - Kenshin and Takehashi - have both gone rigid. He cursed at his own loss of ki sensibility. It was a pain- in-the-ass, he decided.  
  
"Hey? Spy-san?" he touched the spy in bafflement.  
  
A crow shrieked misfortune into the night air.  
  
"Someone's coming."  
  
Footsteps reverberated in the alley, disrupting the serenity of night.  
  
"Aa."  
  
Someone was coming from behind. Their only choice was...  
  
"Jump over the stack." Kenshin instructed his companions.  
  
It was a good idea to come up with.  
  
But then a hint of light shone on them from behind the wooden planks. 


	13. The Trap of the Wolf

**Past and Future by Hitokiri-san**

**A/N: (eyes bugging) four months before an update! God,you must all think I'm dead. But I'm not; just a bit trapped by some other fancies, so as to neglect RK for a while...I hope everyone can forgive me and continue to review. Special gomen to koe-san, B-chan-san, liemtenshi-san and Cee Cee- san, coz I skulked off with the story!**

**CH13 The trap of the wolf**

He knew it; the prey was hopelessly trapped.

He was the predator; and who was about to fall prey to his night hunt was about to be seen.

The Shinsengumi First Troop stole glances at their Gumi-chou as they crept towards their objective. Was that a murderous smirk present on their captain's face? Or were it but a trick of the wavering lantern light?

They would soon know.

"No!" Takehashi's voice had long since lowered to a whisper. "The Shinsengumi is out there."

Kenshin agreed. "The person who has arranged this must be really smart." He said absently, violet orbs darting from side to side.

Takehashi knitted his brows tightly. "I think I know whohe is." In his knowledge, there were only two people in the Shinsengumi who could arrange such a flawless envelopment.

Silent as the fall of Autumn leaves. Deadly as the strike of an angered beast.

Midnight black eyes met rich-violet ones, and realization dawnedbetween them. It could have been Saitou, of course; but as instincts and knowledge informed them, such anenvelopment was not his style. It was actually hard to put it in words; instincts couldn't be explained – but to a swordsman, instinct was everything. It wasn't Saitou – the two had no doubt about that. Well then, it must be -

Okita Souji.

The First Troop captain.

Okita did seem gentler and a lot more cheerful than Saitou, that wastrue; but they knew full well how deceptive appearances could be. Okita could just as well beam at a person while cutting him asunder.

And there was one other thing too...

"Okita isn't supposed to see me ...us...at this stage! If he ever sees us now, we'll alter history again." Kenshin said with a start, receiving one wide- eyed look of understanding and two other of bafflement.

Takehashi could make no sense out of the former hitokiri's remark, but that reminded him too – he himself wasn't supposed to be seen by the keen captain. There had already been so much rumours about information leakage in the Shinsengumi; if Okita ever saw him...well... lurking in a dark alley past midnight, what should he think? That he was the cause of the leakage, of course.

It didn't really change the fact that he was indeed the cause of the leakage; but then, that was supposed to be a secret between him and Katsura, was that not so?

Perhaps it was their luck that the alley was immensely long; as the dark shadows continued their stubborn resistance against the flickering lantern lights, the trapped warriors desperately sought for a perfect way to escape.

Crossing the rooftop was possible, but Takehashi understood that if anyone was to cross the roof, it would not be him.Providedthat Okita was not blind, he would be clearly identified at such a height. Moreover, he had the feeling that Okita had somehow sensed his presence, so basically any attempt to escape – or even standingimmobile in his current position- would immediately blow his cover.

It was mission impossible to get out of this without blowing any of their covers.

"Well." Takehashi grimaced mentally as an idea drifted across his mind. Someone had to sacrifice, that was all; he could not but agree that his plan in mind would be able to save all of them - maybe it was even possible to bring about a counter-attack.

But first, someone had to sacrifice.

"Battousai-san, I would like to ask youa favour."

"And that would be?" Battousai inquired quietly.

"Harm me enough so that I'll be on the verge of dying." The spy smiled grimly, handing Battousai a roll of something.

It only took a flick of the wrist to unroll it, and a glimpse to understand what they had meant.

They were kunais. And some poisoned ones at that.

Lavender eyes narrowed and dithered.

* * *

Patience. 

It might be everyone's image that a wolf is brutal, bloodthirsty; oh yes, they are true, absolutely true. But there is one other thing about wolves...

They are patient as theywait upon the best moment to pounce ontheir prey.

Okita watched as his men moved forward with simultaneous ease. The envelopment circle was getting tighter and tighter; the prey...or preys... would be running into the net anytime soon.

Yet, a feeling of unease had the captain frowning.

It was whenhe smelt it - The sense of human blood, mingled with the wavering ki of...

...Taku...

What was Taku-san doing here? Charcoal eyes widened involuntarily before narrowing. Signaling a silent hand, Okita ordered his men to charge forward – he himself concentrating on the sudden appearance of silhouettes merging readily with the rooftop. The dull moon didn't help to identify the shadows' features – ignoring the startled cries from his men (which were completely oblivious of the threestrangers upon the roof) upon discovering the badly injured "Taku", he squinted slightly in the darkness.

Sight had failed him, but his samurai sense did not; Okita could clearly feel the three unfamiliar ki emitted from above. One, the clearest one to read, was an array of hostility, hurriedness and fear – he, Okita analyzed, was not much of an opponent, at least for him. It was the other two ki that had managed to excite him.

They were vague, faint auras; ones that many samurai would mistake for weakness. Okita knew better -a truly formidable samurai would never be so foolhardy as to let the opponent read his ki. He would mask it masterly, releasing it only on the verge of battle – thus taking the enemy by complete surprise.

The ki intrigued him – it appeared that he had underestimated his so-called preys.

Obviouslyknowing of his arrival, the shadows slid down the other side of the roof. Okita muttered a curse – he knew full well that the other side was stationed with his troop –but as he haderred in assessinghis enemy, this was going to lose him more men than he had initially bargained for. He had not thought before that the prey was capable of crossing roofs – just to play safe, he had placed a few troops on the other side. _They weren't going to hold._ was his last thought as he made up his mind.

He sprang up the roof in pursuit.

* * *

"Taku-san! Can you hear me?" Takehashi heard a deep voice in his stupor, followed by the continuous noise of footfalls. His dizzied sense judged that it must be somewhere to his right...pain had long since dulled his sight, his sixth sense, anything... 

_Idiot...Battousai was one hell of a baka. He didn't even hurt me enough..._

Takehashi cursed the manslayer distractedly. He nearly had to _force_ the distraught hitokiri to throw those stupid kunais at him; and, as he noticed, Battousai was _terrified_ at the thought of hurting somebody.

Damn it, wasn't he supposed to be the notorious manslayer who had killed enough to bedetachedin the faceof blood and death?

He had spent nearly half a century talking sense into him, telling him that it would be the best tactic...but Battousai had promptly rejected the proposal. Heargued thatit would be better if they just barge their way out.

And this, Takehashi thought sarcastically, was why he'd initially thought the boy naive.

Takehashi had tried a more practical way, emphasizing on duty instead of the emotinoal aspect.

" I don't know about the two of you, butthis personhere(he tilted his head to the fourth presence in their midst)definitely _can't_ survive a one-on-twenty battle. He isa spy, not a fighter. In addition, he has something secret to deliver to Katsura-san. I hope you understand that duty should come above everything, and that reckless emotions should be put aside at this stage."

And with that, Battousai had finally complied.

In his glazed sight Takehashi saw Okita leaping onto the roof, precise and deadly as an eagle; he knew without thinking that Okita was giving chase to the two redheads. _Too late..._he mused woozily. _They'll be long gone before you can..._

"Kunais!" Came the expected exclamation. "Taku-san...he's harmed by a ninja!" Takehashi felt himself being surrounded, while all around him, _"Inform Okita gumi-chou" "Call the medic"_ and various other commands seeped through the night air into his ears.

_Here comes another bunch of baka...one who uses kunai doesn't necessarily have to be a ninja_. Takehashi laughed out loud...internally.

That was all he knew before sinking into the void of unconsciousness.

* * *

**A/N: I know, this chap doesn't really make sense. Please bear with me, I'm sorta stuck; and I promise I'll update more regularly!**

**Koe-760-san: I'm sorry, really! I sort of ran into some other interest and forgot about this fic...but anyway, I hope you're well. How's your horsie pic? If you have finished it, plz send it to me, I really want a glimpse...I sorta have a writer's block, so if you find any problem with the story, just let me know, ok? goes off to mess with computer Another thing, I'm now doing a English project on Aliens, and it's freaking me out...guess what, I can't do it at night! LOL. I'm a bit sorry I chose the topic. And later we're going to do a grand play on Romeo and Juliet...of course, nothing higher than PG.**

**B-chan-san: Hey, my little Misao-san reborn! How are you? I'm definitely sorry I neglected this fic, but I am starting it again...I hope you keep reviewing, that's it! Ey, this chap isn't really a evil cliffhanger, so stop glaring at me like this...I have to admit, the thing about predestined death is cool!**

**CharlieTheOtakuNymph-san: how dare you forget about this story! (goes off to throw a tantrum) anyway, don't do that again., my story lives on you!**

**Silverknight-san: you review, I update, and that's that. Is that good?**

**Aprun-san: "Friends"? You don't mean telling Bin Laden to crash a plane into my house, do you? Anyway, the update's late, but I updated! So don't complain.**

**Justice Stryfe: Just to let you know, I'm currently hanging on your story. Saitou vs Hiko next chapter! Wow! The thing is, you have to update faster or I'll kill you off!**

**Liemtenshi-san: Should be a few months since you lost your voice... are you better now? (of course!) You still haven't tripped at the ice rink? I did. Someday ago I was skating real fast in the rink and a kid cut into my path...**

**Cee Cee-san: you give me a late review, so in anguish I give you a late chapter! How's that? Just joking. (dodges random punches) I'm sorry about school and internal drama and projects they're killing me off. I'll continue with this fic, for sure, as long as I live.**

**Ms Zeal-san : (freezes as I read your review) I can't really answer your first question as, technically, I did this to aid some future plot. (sweatdrops) haven't thought of it this way. You think deeper than me ashamed laugh As for the second question: it's a "no", but it really depends on Zenei Makimoto: he have no control over the rurouni and his counterpart (just right now he doesn't know where they are), but he can fix Kaoru's, Sano's and Yahiko's memory if the situation calls. Thanks for suggesting! Really love ya. I am trying to sort out the first question... You can try writing a fic of your own! It's fun, really.**

**Lady E1-san: Oro, what does your name means? And about laughing out loud while reading a fic on this net, I remember secretly reading on a computer lesson – I laughed out loud and everyone were throwing me sort of what-the-hell-is-wrong looks. Weird! You reign supreme in updating? (blinks) anou, what can you do if I don't update? (a katana sticks out from the screen) ARG! I understand, I understand. Please continue to review!**


	14. When Escape part our ways

**Past and Future By Hitokiri-san**

**A/N: Thanks for all that reviews last chapter, I can even see my old friends black there again...eyes watering and of course, some new reviewers! I'm busying to death at the moment (tests tomorrow and on Thursday, drama competition up ahead...argh) so I'm posting it up lest I got more busy and forgot about it. I'll make up the re-reviews next chapter, ok? This can be said as a slightly longer chapter, but sorry; serious actions will be in next chap.**

**Ch 14 When Escape part our ways**

There was only one word to describe Kyoto, especially at nights. Especially at starless nights,

It was a damned dizzying maze.

Kenshin leapt down the rooftop with catlike grace, alert that Okita Souji was hot on their tail. Battousai kept close to his side, dragging the other Ishin spy – Takehashi's sidekick – along. Both kept their silence as they sped through yet another alleyway, keeping an eye out for the formidable Shinsengumi captain.

Footsteps came around them, both in front and behind; both Himuras had the dark impression of what was going to happen next.

Pursuers back behind, Shinsengumi enforcement right in front; and though Battousai didn't bother to mention it, the Ishin spy was dragging his speed down.

If they didn't do anything soon, they would most likely find themselves trapped.

Battousai turned to his older counterpart, soundlessly pointing out that worry. He could feel a number of openly hostile ki congregating from different directions, targeting them. Leave it to the Shisengumi to assemble enforcement at a moment's notice.

Those ki didn't exactly trouble him, though; Battousai had no doubt that he could take down a couple of men without killing them. What worried him was ... what if these men had memorized...or simply seen his appearance at all? This would cause a premature exposure of his identity – he was not sure if this would affect later events, but then...

Better not take the risk.

He considered tearing his gi for a makeshift mask, but that wouldn't exactly work – for one, howexactly was he going to tear his gi while sprinting and dragging another person along?

And there was Okita back there, following patiently – out of sight yet never far away, waiting for the perfect opportunity to bare his wolfish fangs...

Battousai listened to the steady pounding behind his ribcage, thinking hard. He must admit that the situation was no less bleak than what they'd encountered before -surrounded, targeted, capable yet unable to eliminate their enemies.

_If things carry on like this, we may find ourselves bumping into Saitou..._ Lavender eyes closed for a brief moment, trying to grasp the mysterious sense that gave him this idea. None came into his mind, but he put it in words anyway.

"Saitou's around." He stated, training his eyes on the dark path ahead. Those silhouettes ahead...were they enemy enforcements or mere shadows? Even with his enhanced eyesight he couldn't be sure. But one thing he was sure of: they needed to get out of there, and quick.

"Aa." Came a terse from the rurouni, who narrowed deep violet orbs in sudden decision, "at the next crossroad, we part. I'll meet you back at the headquarters." He arched a meaningful eyebrow at their third acquaintance – the spy, then turned away in a fleeting second. Battousai understood without words what he was trying to say. The rurouni had no wish to embarrass the spy by questioning his combat skills; but fact was fact, protecting the undercover from harm was now Battousai's priority. As for Kenshin – he would be the one to distract Okita and Saitou.

It was the most dangerous task ever, taking on both formidable wolves at once; but as it was, there was never much choice to begin with.

Battousai bit down an instinctive desire to point out the peril. He knew, deep down, that if given the authority to choose, he would make the same decision – now that the rurouni had made up his mind, it was impossible to alter his decisions. They hadn't really much time for bickering, either.

The hitokiri stole a glance at his resolute counterpart, worry surfacing in his features. It was almost unsettling to part with Kenshin the first time since the Time accident, but now that situation called...

"Daijoubu." The three syllables registered in Battousai's mind as he skidded to an abrupt halt, then dartingninety degrees down the immediate rightward road to his side. He listened as the footsteps of his older "sibling" faded into distance.

And an unfathomable feeling of dread found its way into his heart.

* * *

Kenshin slowed his god-like speed to a complete stop, brows creasing he assessed his disconcerted feeling once more. It wasn't something of pressing danger, not so fast; but for all he knew, it might serve as a prelude to threats that would happen in time. 

There were usually two causes for this...wariness; one, he himself was about to be in danger. Two, his counterpart was about to face life-risking situations. He hadhad this same feeling when he was in Tasuka Yashiro's headquarters. Back then, he couldn't decide if this feeling was for himself or for Battousai.

Neither could he this time.

He just hoped it had something to do with him rather than with the young hitokiri – the boy had already had enough trouble to last him a lifetime.

Ridding himself of worried thoughts, he began casting his ki around the area.

Tonight, he would be the Miburos' bait.

* * *

"You alright?" 

Battousai continued his silent journey through the shadow-laden streets, blending into the darkness as if he was part of it. He frowned upon hearing his companion's ragged, uneven breath. Well, he himself should be the one on the receiving end of this question; for it was truth that the young hitokiri wasn't anywhere near "alright". The sight of several kunai embedded in Takehashi's body...the sickly, metallic scent of blood...the thick, obscene liquid gushing from the young spy's wound...it was too much, far too much than he could ever take in.

The scene alone...had aroused something in the manslayer's memory, something so sinister and powerful he had done anything he could to shove it away. It hung on anyway, like a leech under the fur of a weak animal, feeding slowly on his brittle sanity...he found himself staring up to the heavens, just like he did the first time his katana tasted blood.

The moon was a crimson ball as it always was, in the blood-washed city of Kyoto.

The boy pressed an arm-guarded hand to his temple, rubbing gently. This did not help to ease the consistent feeling of unease stirring in his head; he knew, from instincts, that the sensation had something to do with looming danger – which probably meant a duel-to-the-death with a couple of Shinsengumi, Saitou and Okita included.

He seriously hoped that it wouldn't be happening anywhere near his dear rurouni.

"Hai, Himura-san." Was the resolved answer as the young Ishin spy rubbed his sore arms, out of breath but in the meantime grateful. He wondered how Takehashi was doing now, how he was going to deal with the injury...the scene back there had him literally out of wits. After all, Takehashi was right about him; he was green and fragile, green in a sense that no one would expect him a spy – not even top samurai such as Saitou or Okita. For his ki would never flare as strongly as skilled spies (such as Takehashi himself) would, therefore could save the effort of masking it; to the likes of Saitou and Okita, such a weak ki would emanate no danger – that was logical thinking.

But such naiveté came at a price. That is, the Ishin spy could never learn kenjutsu or other defensive skills properly.In situations like this, he would crave for his own fighting skills; he hated being some other person's burden or hindering that person in any way.

" Matsukaze spy-san, I wouldn't space out right here if I were you." The manslayer reminded his companion none-too-gently, cautiously skimming the area for any signs of life. Without his ability to sense ki, his superhuman sight was probably the second best thing – but to the hitokiri, it was not sufficient enough.

"So you recognized me from the start, Himura-san." The Ishin spy held a wan smile.

Battousai shrugged, sparing him a glare. "I am not blind.The shy, young man who seldom says more than a couple of words...the same man who witnessed Ken...tai and I lying in a floor's worth of debris, then turned tail and ran...those are not things that one can easily forget."

"You have an excellent memory, Himura-san. How often have you heard my name...maybe twice since I joined the Ishin?"There was a faintly sarcastic edge to the spy's words.

"I havenever expected you a spy, Matsukaze. So...I take it you areKatsura-san's antenna in the Shinsengumi." Battousai commented, reasonably calm as he led the other spy on. They remained in alert silence as they sprinted through street after street, careful to avoid their pursuers.

Twenty minutes ticked away uneventfully; it seemedthat Kenshin's distracting plan had succeeded. Lowering his guard the slightest bit, Battousai allowed himself to take a deep breath...

Only to realize his foolishness in doing that.

* * *

"So here you are." A foreboding voice drawled from among the shades, drawing Battousai to his guard. Pulling Matsukaze behind his back, Battousai watched as twenty or so Shinsengumi guards poured out from inside buildings, blocking his way. It took only a sideward glance to know that their escape route had, likewise, been cut off. 

Kuso, he just _knew_ that sight alone wasn't enough to serve his purpose.

And there were those dark-suited strangers accompanying the Shinsengumi...

Battousai did not necessarily comprehend what those people were, but he did recognize the metallic tubes in their grasps.

_Chikusho, and they have guns..._ the boy cast his eyes to the light sources held by the Shinsengumi, promptly formulating a plan. He couldn't have them see his face; it wouldn't do for history to make another ugly turn because of his negligence. Moral forbade him to kill these innocent men just for secret keeping. So, what should he do?

The torches flickered at a distance, radiating feeble light towards the dark targets. Torch lights glinted faintly on the daishou at the manslayer's hip, receding just before they reached his navy blue uniform. The scene was that of undisturbed stillness – yet amid that stillness, the pressure brought was deafening.

"Discard your weapon and show yourself." A calm, ringing voice rose to break the silence.

The owner of said voice stepped three paces forward, allowing Battousai to have a quick assessment of his latest foe.

/Well, here comes step one. / the hitokiri boy bowed his head by a little, allowing the overgrown bangs to enclose his easily-identified features from plain view. He blinked involuntarily as the image of his current nemesis registered in pale lilac eyes.

He looked unexplainably familiar.

It was, perhaps, that hint of a smirk curving the edge of his lips, slightly arrogant yet equally well prepared; tingled with a trace of sadness that was linked with close acquaintance with death.

He was like...like...

Like a Hiko with dilute arrogance and a Saitou with a less aggravating character merged together. Only the force of steady serenity that reflected in his cement-gray eyes managed to mirror both of the aforementioned swordsmen.

And that, Battousai decided, was no small feat to be achieved.

Under the veil of his shaggy red mane, Battousai tensed further. It was clear that he would not offer a verbal reply.

Seeing that the samurai had no intention to follow wither of his orders, the man's tone took on a dangerous quality.

"I am Hiroi Kizuka, vice-captain of the Shinsengumi First Troop. Name yourself." The captain declared, the slight impatience in his features belying his soft-spoken inquiry.

He wasn't surprised when Battousai simply stood still, one elbow leaning casually against the hilt of his katana.

The sight of the offending stance left Hiroi no choice. Raising a hand slowly, the Shisengumi vice-captain motioned his men to finish their assigned job.

"When I move, you duck – immediately." Battousai growled almost inaudibly, his hand sliding down the worn leather around his sword in a careless caress. Matsukaze gave consent with a dumb nod.

The torches raised as a signal of doom.


	15. A Mistake Repeated

**Past and Future by Hitokiri-san **

**Oops! Don't kill me yet, I'm going to explain for the long delay! I'm sure you won't want to kill me after that! Anou...You see, I've got 100 reviews! (beams happily) so I think I gotta celebrate. I wrote this chapter to be four times the length of a normal one...with a rather evil cliffie at the end...100 reviews, yay! And hey, I was hurrying to get this chapter out before my final exam, which will be from the 7th of June to the 18th. (mutters something uncivil) so I won't be seeing all of you for a while... so! On with my story!**

**Chapter 15 A Mistake Repeated  
  
**Light sprint decelerated into a walk, until the walk slowed further into a complete stop.

Okita Souji allowed a slight smile to curve his pale lips, charcoal eyes softened as he sensed the person nearing him.

"Saitou-san. What brings you here?" he inquired rather innocently – well, as innocent as Takehashi was when he bumped into Nagakura, that is. Okita wasn't bothering to fool Saitou with his pretended naiveté – Saitou could see through him like a mirror – it was just habit that he kept his naïve look on.

And Saitou responded with his habitual wolfish smirk. "I can say the same about you, Okita."

Okita shrugged dismissively as he felt the ki of his preys split into different directions. So they are trying to distract me ... "Is there a need for me to explain what I'm currently doing?" he turned raised brows at his fellow captain, hidden impatience masked in his cheerful voice.

The lanky Third Troop Captain was the least bit surprised to catch the minimal note of intolerance in his companion's words. Normally, Okita was a figure of unmovable patience...patience when he trained the new soldiers, patience when he readied himself for a battle; and most of all, patience when he tracked his preys - even Saitou must grudgingly admit that his exceeding patience was, to an extent, even creepy.

But now...

"Some exceptional quarries you have here." Saitou opined casually, casting knowing amber eyes at his long-known comrade. He understood what it was like, to meet another samurai worthy of one's attention – after all, there were few that could match the skills of the deadly First Troop Captain. If anything could draw Okita's full attention, the thought of a nemesis with matching skills would surely be it.

Coming upon a sudden decision, Saitou crossed his arms; allowing the blue- green fabric to crease together. "Do whatever you want with them - I shall not intervene." With that he simply turned upon his heels, leaving a wide- eyed Okita standing behind. Life-long friends though they were, they had never failed to surprise each other with their oh-so-different personalities.

Okita allowed a smile to grace his lips. Tonight would be the perfect Aku Soku Zan time.

* * *

Kyoto's night breeze had long since chilled into a howling gust. 

Kenshin narrowed hard amethyst orbs, faintly aware that the wide sleeves of his gi was flapping painfully against his arm. He simply ignored it – he refused to be distracted at this particular moment. Well, he already had a hundred reasons to be distracted without adding this trivial one to it.

His long-buried hitokiri instincts were insistently trying to kick in, despite his repeated effort at disregarding it. Something was amiss, terribly amiss – the instincts were positively yelling themselves hoarse – think now! THINK! You have to find out what the heck is wrong let the mistake went too far to be mended...

The rurouni didn't need telling twice; willing his ridiculously violent heartbeat to slow down a fraction, he swiftly recalculated all hints of fatal peril that could doom both him and the boy to an early hell.

The boy...

The wanderer's attention slid momentarily as the image of a certain redheaded, blue-clad boy with a swaying ponytail flitted across his mind. Battousai. His breath caught in his throat at the image. He would not have the boy come to any harm, not a chance in the world; and yet, why did he have this feeling that...

Another image materialized, faint as a shadow on the water's surface.

A scarce half-smile.

Purple shawl, white kimono, ebony eyes that spoke of great sadness. Yet in her silent form something cried urgency; something that was totally uncharacteristic to her.

"Tomoe."

Kenshin closed his eyes; one part of him indulging in the vision, another part of him yelling for him to pay attention to his surroundings. He didn't care.

He didn't care for anything at that moment.

"Tomoe...anata, you have something to say to me."

She stood still, hands placed ever so elegantly upon each other – but in her eyes, words flew and sparkled without effort. Words that proclaimed disaster.

_The boy...Battousai..._

_The boy._

_Save him, anata. Save him from being forced to do that again. Her image began to fade; and in his mind's eyes Kenshin fancied he caught the sweetly scent of haku baikou._

"That." Ice-cold realization dawned, crashing the redheaded rurouni back to reality. Biting down a colorful curse, He sprinted madly, everything forgotten; back to where he and Battousai had parted in the first place, his speed nearly catching up with Soujiro's Shikuchi. Okita was nothing important now, nor was Saitou...the only thing Kenshin had in mind was to meet up with Battousai again - never to let the hitokiri leave his line of sight for as long as the Kingdom of Kami lasted.

_That.  
_  
He would never, never have that happen, whatever the cost.

* * *

Finally. 

With a swift glance from left to right Battousai had all the light sources marked; there were about ten lanterns altogether, raised and positioned at the back of the battalion. The last thing the Shisengumi wanted was to fight in the dark against one single enemy. Heck, in the commotion they might just start fighting against one another.

So they knew how to protect their light source. Not too bad, eh? It would have worked for anyone who didn't know anything about Shinsengumi formations...still, Battousai had known, understood, analyzed them completely. He'd never met the Shinsengumi, but then a full analysis of each and every enemy was a necessity.

He watched with baited breath as the torches seemed to rise up to the airin an exaggeratedly slow motion. Tightening his grip around the hilt of his katana, Battousai steeled his mind for an inevitable battle.

_You have always been right, Shishou._

_Let's hope you're right this time._

* * *

Hiko Seijuro observed with silent contemplation as his young deshi refilled his sake cup with obvious caution. It was a mere three years that their destiny had crossed, and yet young Kenshin seemed to know his habits better than even Hiko himself. He awoke every morning to find a small cup of sake perching on the log he usually sat on, and a stack of firewood perched near his kiln, lest the master suddenly felt like doing pottery that day. All chores were silently done without ado. 

Yet Kenshin seldom said anything about it.

And so, did Hiko.

Kenshin, Hiko mused as he gave a nod to the small redheaded child, was anything but talkative. Not that he minded – Hiko himself wasn't the talkative type either – it was just that Kenshin's silence had more or less been the result of closing himself up against sinister memories of his past. His parents dead, his adoptive sisters brutally murdered...these weren't what a child at his age was supposed to go through. But then, he supposed that tragedies were nothing out of the ordinary in times of war.

That wasn't going to work; the kid would soon drive himself mad if he went on like this.

"Kenshin?" the abrupt mentioning of his name plus the absence of the tag "baka deishi" made the redhead jump about three feet towards heaven.

"Hai, Shishou?"

Hiko couldn't think of anything to say. Damn it all, both his status as a swordsman and as a hermit didn't grant him any additional skill in socializing. Hiko's own master had often commented on his uncommunicativeness... and here he was, trying to communicate with his own highly uncommunicative deishi while being even more uncommunicative himself.

Things were getting complicated.

Hiko held his deishi's uncomprehending stare for a brief moment; mind reeling for something he could state to the child without sounding awkward. Something that could distract Kenshin from all those swirling memories inside his little head.

His mind clicked. There was one single thing he was truly comfortable of discussing...

"I ask you, Kenshin – what would you do if you were ambushed by a brigade at night?"

This was part of the training...violet eyes glazed over as the ten-year-old considered the circumstances. There were three special conditions to note: ambush, brigade, and night. The first two he could understand their significance. But what did "night" have to do with it?

"I would finish off the weakest ones in the rank first." Came the boy's soft, thoughtful answer. Kenshin cocked his head in a birdlike way, before further affirming his decision with a slight tilting of his head.

That was a good answer, at least for a ten-year-old. However, that was not what Hiko wanted.

"A battalion, or anything of the sort, frequently adopt formations so they could avoid weaker members from being singled out." Hiko peered over his sake cup, indirectly rejecting Kenshin's answer. The boy narrowed his eyes, trying to piece out the model answer in his little mind. When that didn't succeed, he merely shook his head, looking fairly disappointed with himself.

Hiko glanced sideways at the boy before continuing. There was one thing that he liked about Kenshin, yet the master knew this strength could easily deteriorate into a weakness when the situation was shifted – Kenshin was his own hardest judge. The boy demanded a lot out of himself, berated himself for the slightest of mistakes, and hated himself for something he could not redeem...something like the lives of his family. It was what made him adorable; but Hiko knew too well that it was also the same thing that made him vulnerable.

As if realizing he was brooding too hard, Hiko snapped his head upwards to meet the gaze of his expectant deishi.

"I told you before that the eyes are one of the most vulnerable points of your body. If you lost both eyes during a fight..." he stood up, throwing the mantle back with an audible swish, "...your life is forfeit."

Kenshin nodded at the information, pondering what Hiko might be hinting at. Surely...surely Hiko wasn't telling him to take his opponents' eyes out if he was ever outnumbered? He shook his head almost contemptuously. Shishou would not teach him such lowly tactics, by any means. The lecture about eyes...they must have a deeper meaning to that.

"There are numerous conditions to be considered if you were to fight at night...especially when you were at odds. But the main thing to consider - if you were to fight to your advantage – are eyes. Night's eyes. When you are to fight against multiple enemies, you do not want clarity – remember that you're ambushed." The Hiten master said with a slight smirk about his lips. Out of habit, he never states facts to his student directly. He wanted the boy to think so that whatever was taught would be firmly ingrained in Kenshin's memory.

Well well...he was positive that he had given the boy hints enough to arrive at the answer. Kenshin was never a dork of any sort...and that wasn't that hard a comprehension question either.

Hiko watched as the boy propped his head up with his elbows. Watched as he subconsciously turned to the campfire he had set up for breakfast. Watched as the mauve eyes widened with sudden inspiration.

Smirking with imperceptible approval, the Hiten master unsheathed his katana in a mere millisecond.

And, with a simple flip of his wrist, extinguished the campfire without even getting near it.

Kenshin's violet orbs widened further.

"Yeah, this is what I thought but...how did you do that, Shishou? I was thinking of extinguishing the light sources kept by the enemy by using Do Ryu Sen. Then they'll be left fighting without light...and I'll have an advantage as Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu works equally well in the dark."

"Well, I guess you're correct. But..." Hiko narrowed his eyes with sudden displeasure, "you say you're using Do Ryu Sen to rip the whole street apart just for getting at one lantern? Hmph, baka. That wouldn't do, wouldn't do at all. Maybe I'll have to teach you some non-contact techniques after all." Hiko huffed with his usual ego. And Kenshin blushed a bright red at the comment.

Out of the corner of his dark eyes, the thirteenth Hiten master noted the way Kenshin's eyes lit up at the thought of a new technique. Noted how the boy smiled in spite of himself. The mere thought of kenjutsu had swept the child's usually silent demeanor away.

Hiko came to a final conclusion.

Whatever he had faced in his past, the kid needed Hiten Mitsurugi after all.

* * *

"Attack." The command was spoken with the volume of a whisper and the texture of an iceberg. 

From that moment on, Hiroi Kizuka knew his prey wasn't going to live for another moment. He frowned; feeling a faintest trace of tugging uneasiness. Bound tightly by his samurai honor, he'd never thought he would resort to using those gaijin gunners...but situation called; and when it earnestly did, responsibility would weight more than his pride, even if maintaining his warrior pride had even outweighed his own life.

Only the reminder of responsibility could enable him to tolerate the distaste of having to deal with what his conscience knew too well – a double-dealer.

_Tonight, I will lure him out. There you may have him; be doing the world a favour._

_His name...is Battousai. Himura Battousai. The boy hitokiri._ A blank smile in the dark.

Hiroi had closed his eyes briefly then. "And you? Will he trust you...will he even follow you out?"

It was curious how a face that had displayed youthful enthusiasm so well could betray suchwickedness at the current moment. Hiroi had made a mental note to discard of such a repulsive character from the earth's surface once his purpose was achieved. He had even pondered whether he liked the bloodthirsty Battousai more than this deceiving bastard.

At least Battousai didn't try to cover himself up with lies.

The alarming echo of ammunition stole the vice-captain's attention back to the hitokiri standing still at the farthest distance his sight could reach. Standing still...so still...as if he had accepted his sealed fate – a death, by the Shinsengumi's hands.

The bullets shrieked across the night air, tearing up air currents wherever they went. All aimed at an identical target.

Then...

Then Battousai was gone.

Hiroi's grey-black eyes widened in utmost shock as he realized just how badly he'd misjudged the Ishin hitokiri.

Oh, how he would pay dearly for that misjudgment...

Forcing his numb mind to keep cool, Hiroi brought his katana up to chest level, prepared to defend at a moment's notice. The other Shinsengumi members were not that smart, however; upon witnessing the hitokiri's abrupt disappearance, most were momentarily confused – swords held uselessly low against any attacks.

"PAY ATTENTION, MEN!" the vice-captain noticed how his throat had gone dry, how his words had nearly choked off in his throat. It was useless – no matter how much attention his men had managed to salvage by that single shout, it was too late. Far too late.

Behind Hiroi, the gaijin were busily reloading their rifles.

* * *

"HYAAAAA!" A youthful, almost husky cry made Battousai's reappearance known. Hiroi cursed very audibly as a stream of red-brown hair crossed his vision before vanishing off again. All was clear by then; Battousai had broken into the right flank of his troop. Sinking into an offensive posture, Hiroi dashed at the fast-moving assassin, planning to trap him down for a one-on-forty battle. The Ishin hitokiri was now visible in full light; albeit the fluidity of his movements denied his enemies a good enough look at his features. 

However, Battousai would not be convinced of slowing down. Slapping the vice-captain's katana aside with the flat of his blade, he twisted behind yet another Shinsengumi, intending to use the man as a temporarily shield. It was effective – the abrupt dodging movement forced the rest to withdraw their katana immediately. Their unfortunate comrade had thus avoided being skewered at a hair's width, but Battousai had got what he wanted all along – time.

Gunfire wasn't at its best at short distance.

Battousai had his katana in hand, saya and all, as he tore through the ranks like a psychopathic hurricane. He didn't need to see blood – not when any alternate choices were offered to him. He didn't have a sakabatou, that's true; but he didn't specifically need a sakabatou anyway. Sidestepping, the boy elbowed a gunner out of his path; the now-near flicker of torches reflecting in the lavender eyes.

It was action time.

_Remember, baka deishi. When you slash at the direction of the light, stop precisely at mid-slash._

The hitokiri brought his wakizashi out in a swift battoujutsu, making sure that no one was in his way. He didn't want to cut somebody into halves by sheer accident...

By the time the blade reached a fraction of a circle, Battousai pulled the arc back in one abrupt, heart-stopping motion. It looked as if the teenager was performing some sort of invisible dark magic in the air. A small, almost mirthful smile graced his lips as he awaited the results.

_Because, boy, you are not extinguishing the lights by the ferocious gust brought about by the slash. A flame always react negatively to such gusts – it burns even more fiercely.  
_  
_But when you end the slash prematurely, the air currents smash against each other. The flame, under such opposing currents, will be destroyed.  
_  
The ten torches blazed for a mere second before throwing the street into abyssal blackness. It was then that Hiroi finally realized the sly hitokiri's true intention.

The Shinsengumi flew into a semi-panic, colliding into each other in the commotion. Being quick to draw and desperate to defend themselves, they might just end up in total chaos – exactly what Battousai wanted.

"Damn! What's that?"

"Where's the samurai?" "Keep quiet, moron!"

A clash of steel against a saya. A dull groan, the thuds of a couple of bodies hitting the ground.

That was what set the Mibu wolves off.

"Kisama..."

"Get him!"

"NO!" Hiroi found himself crying to a couple of wavering shadows. "Don't chase after him, that's what he is after! Dammit, stand still, all of you!"

Further rings of metal, until an array of glimmering katana littered the ground. Hiroi had the distinct impression that Battousai was having the fun time of his life. His greatly wavered calmness returned to him steadily; half out of anger at the hitokiri, half out of disgust at himself. He listened, almost dispassionately, as the last of his men fell with unceremonious crashes. He wanted revenge. Revenge for his soldiers. Revenge to the cold-blooded killer who had ruthlessly cut them all down.

"So it's you and me now, Battousai. You and me." A deceptively rational statement.

Mauve eyes widened in the dark. "...so you knew who I am all along. Is it...Okita...?" the boyish voice left off uncertainly.

* * *

"Maybe I'll tell you on your tomb." Hiroi stared straight at where the assassin's voice was originated, barely making out his delicate silhouette. His form still unmoving, voice still detachedly leveled, one might think he was no harm for the moment... 

Battousai raised his sheathed katana reflexively as Hiroi aimed an over-the- head blow to his head, intending to sever his skull. The boy watched, silently, as the vice-captain's katana cracked his own saya, biting into the blade beneath. Knowing that he was no match for brute strength, the hitokiri twirled around, using the momentum to withdraw his blade. He aimed a slanting blow to Hiroi's back, meanwhile turning his blade around – now that his saya had cracked - so he wouldn't accidentally kill the man off by the attack.

Kizuka grunted, knocking the slash off with half a second to spare. He held no illusions that he was nearly as good as either his own Gumi-chou or Saitou-san; and the mere seconds of battle had proved to him that Battousai was, literally, capable of fighting equals with the above two men.

He didn't care. If he was going to die by the Shinsengumi code, so be it.

While Battousai had his own restrictions of not killing, the vice-captain held no such worries. Following the Battousai around, he promptly executed an eerily close version of Okita's three-point Sandantsuki, momentarily surprising the manslayer. The truth was – Battousai had never ever seen that move before. Heck, he hadn't even met Okita Souji himself before!

The hitokiri swerved instinctively as a katana reached for direct contact with his throat, the arm holding it vanishing with the speed it brought. His own blade was still out from the last attack, so dodging would be the one and only option. Still, the boy felt his body tensing as the tip of Hiroi's sword met with his delicate bright red tresses; severing a few into halves as it went.

Battousai decided that evading wasn't exactly a tactic he could use forever.

Anticipating the next thrust for his right shoulder – Hiroi's movement had shown as such – the manslayer snapped his katana to a horizontal position, shifting the steel so that it brushed right against that of his opponent, until the edge of his katana nicked the chest of his nemesis.

The sharp edge.

Pale lavender eyes widened to their fullest extent as the Shinsengumi vice- captain's lips parted in an "o" of surprise. With a flutter of heart-aching fear the hitokiri flicked his wrist against his own momentum, just in time to slash the man over the torso with the back of his blade. Still, the vice captain could have sworn that the slash, though unaccompanied by a sharp edge, was no less different from a two-handed hit from a spiked club.

In any case, Hiroi's Sandantsuki was nowhere as formidable as Okita's would have been.

Hiroi fell back, a sharp breath caught at his throat. He glanced at his ripped haori in impassive appraisal, then directed his full gaze to the boy across him. He wondered with silent amazement at the wide-eyed panic on the boy's face – it was as if...as if Battousai was afraid that he'd have killed him. So. Was it why Battousai had hacked at him with...the back of his blade?

Yeah right, Hiroi Kizuka scoffed, at the absurdity of the thought, at himself for coming up with such a thought. Hitokiri Battousai would hesitate in killing off a Shinsengumi member...someday. And on that "someday", he added as an afterthought, Katsura Kogoro is going to join the Shinsengumi as a hitokiri. He must have imagined that look of utmost fright on the hitokiri's face...had he?

But yet, a second glance at the redhead gave him an impression that impossibility was not impossible after all.

* * *

Battousai leapt immediately backwards as the thin layer of steel in his grasp encountered with vulnerable, humanly flesh; nearly losing his footing and twisting his ankle as he landed. He suddenly felt chilled all over, almost as if drenched by ice-cold water in the coldest of weathers. 

He'd almost...done it.

Almost fell into old habit and dragged the katana from Hiroi's shoulder to hip, severing the Shinsengumi into two slanting, bloodied pieces. Almost succumbed to the hitokiri sense that witnesses were the most dangerous people alive. Had he been a bit late to realize it, he would have...Battousai shuddered mentally as his mind provided a rich gallery of what he might've done.

Almost...yet...

He didn't. Didn't do anything to fatally harm the man with his katana. Didn't break his covenant with the rurouni...he angled his katana once again, sharp edge facing himself, once he got a better grip on himself. The hitokiri had never imagined that his older counterpart would have that much of an effect on him. A few days ago, he would have brought the blade downwards without hesitation. He would have believed that the killing was for the greater good, a necessity for the new era to come. And now...

He had come to realize how brittle his belief was. Or put it this way, his "belief" was something that he had forced himself to believe. It didn't sound right, it never did; never since his hands were first tainted with blood. It was getting harder and harder to believe in the so-called Tenchu justice every time he did the job.

The rurouni...he had offered him another sense of justice. A different perspective, in fact; he'd never tried to force it on the boy, but it was enough. To the lost hitokiri, it was enlightenment before madness. A solution of sorts, that made more sense than what he had ceased to believe. Battousai was grateful for that.

Mauve eyes narrowed to their original size.

"You know you can't beat me, Hiroi-san. Not in the dark. Move over, and I'll leave." The youthful voice carried no hint of a challenge, only the dispassion of stating a fact. Battousai had no intention of continuing the fight anymore - even if it might lead to the disclosure of his identity. He regarded the taller man steadily; noting that his quarry's breathing was shallow and uneven, the first signs of injury. The vice-captain would probably find a bruised rib after this.

"I'm not backing down...to a murderer." The words were coolly stated, doubtless, and firm. Hiroi deliberately straightened up, ignoring the constricting pain that erupted from the simple movement. If the manslayer could slash that hard with the back of a sword...he shook his head slightly, the silent serenity returning to his grey eyes.

_I'm not backing down even if Death in form of a boy hitokiri stares me in the face._

Hiroi charged forward with a battle cry upon his lips, all considerations forsaken. Battousai was right: there was indeed no way in hell that he could gain victory over the assassin. Then, at the very least, let him die with the honor of a Shinsengumi leader.

Battousai exhaled a hardly noticeable sigh. _So this is what the rurouni always have to put up with...stubborn enemies and all_. Assuming a defensive stance, he prepared to meet the upcoming onslaught with the minimum of attacks.

An insignificant shift in air current, so small that it could barely be noticed.

What the...

The boy was unable to stifle a gasp as white-hot pain shot up from the back of his knees, blinding out his vision temporarily. He was suddenly knocked out of balance, the movement of his upper body too late to recognize the searing pain, too late to regain control...unaccustomed to such abrupt abuse, his knees gave before him- sending him right in the path of Hiroi's horizontal slash.

Right in the path of an arc of death.

He could only watch in resigned horror as the katana bit deeply into his own chest, blood gushing from the line that thin piece of metal had created. Dotted red upon navy blue...he found horrid fascination in observing the way his life poured out of him, as if in a dreamlike trance...the smell of his own blood was metallic, coppery as any other person's. Blackness in hellish red clouded his mind then, as the boy slammed backwards onto the road, his fall accompanied by the clanging of a katana.

_Rurouni..._

_**

* * *

**_

**A/N: Whoopies! At least I'm finished with this chapter...Y'know, when I re- read the earlier chapters, I'm sooooooooo amazed that I wrote something like "the Battousai don't have a brother" and never noticed it! hitokiri- san goes to hang herself in front of her house I'm going to repost that thing someday! And yea, the following are re-reviews for chapters 13 and 14.**

**Miss Zeal: I'm making this up with the review of chapter 13! You're right, life's getting hellish as I try to cope with my Mathematics (more like trying not to fail it). I bet this chapter sorta reflects the utter chaos that is invading my life... and yup, I affirm again, I'm currently in love with the fic and I'm not gonna stop it, not at least until I finish the Takehashi arc. And the greatest credit an author could get is an encouraging review! Arigatou!**

**Liemtenshi: Takehashi (aka Taku) is with...dramatic pause well! I'm not telling you. You gotta read for yourself! (blinks innocently) Argh! A blade cut iinto someone's artery? shivers as I imagine the scene that's real creepy, makes me think of the way Tomoe's blood taint the snow...I think I'm gonna get sick...I hope you're happy with this chapter!**

**Maeve Riannon: Whoops, your name is a little bit hard to spell (so I'm a sucking speller) I'm glad you like the Kenshin/Battousai interaction. It intrigues me, how they're the same and yet so utterly different...maybe the main theme I want to express in the story is not romance or action, but the change of this subtle relationship with the coming of stress, danger and different crisis.**

**Robin Rainyday: And now I'm the one coughing...I got a freaking cold and nearly coughs my lung out...so here's my turn...thank you for granting me something to lighten my mood today!**

**B-chan: Soujirou reborn? (cocks head) I'm nowhere like Soujirou! (though I must admit he's real cute...) wiggles finger how does your ice cream get a cheese flavor to it? Maybe it turned bad? Hentai...smirks a 13-year-old thinking of hentai already?**

**Koe760: Sorry for not replying to your last review, that I most certainly am! Same reason: school's been killing me a lot this year...come to think of it, compared to this year, Grade 9's real cakewalk. The teachers keep telling us how our Certificate Exam is due next year, and that we have to study harder, and harder, and ever harder...(rolls eyes) You're evil! I want a pic, and you deny me even that...(goes off to play a tragic scene of crying my gut out) well! I drew a bookmark with Battousai and the rurouni to celebrate 100 reviews day, isn't that great? Heck but I don't have a stupid scanner...I see you have a real problem in forming coherent sentences smirky Geez! About the email, I think we can start after the dn exam! Email rules! Send me a email if you have time (and no, this is compulsory) talk to you later!**

**The sacred night: Jeez, I forgot that red hair! Stupid, stupid! (blushes) Well, Hiroi and the Shinsengumi are cough erm...color blind, so that's it. looks around nervously well, I am glad that everyone seems to like Kenshin/Battousai interaction, I'm sorry I have to split them up...but they're going to meet up in...a disaster!**

**Justice Stryfe: I see you haven't updated for long! (pouts) you gotta give me some input! I love Hiko. And Kenshin. And Battousai. And...jeez, everyone in RK! Thanks for reviewing! I think this chapter is a rather...I don't know how to say it...chaotic one. Also, sorta the start of a one-side action ie Battousai versus Hiroi in the chapter...though I'm not pleased with how it turned out. Hope you enjoy it!**

**Silverrowan: (laughs) actually, my inspiration does come from some story...and a really famous one at that. I'm not saying which! (blushes)**

**Angrybee: well, Takehashi's the kind of person with a sick humor smirks...I really love your Hajime and Tokio. It makes my story look like trash...(slinks into a corner)**

**PhoebeOtaku: I wonder what Otaku means? It's inn a lot of people's name but I don't really know what it means...anyway, thanks for reading this unworthy fic!**

**Bard Linn: Heh, so you want Katsura-san? (evil smirk) you think I'll leave Katsura off? And Battousai has just stalked the night off without any sort of permission...you see what I mean. wink wink**

**CeeCee: Oh sorry, I know I got everybody mixed up with the name Kenshin. Kenshin usually refers to the rurouni, because I somehow got the strange impression that Kenshin only belongs to the rurouni, y'know...well! Starless. (menacing grin) just what d'you expect me to mention starless for? chases CeeCee off with frying pan police armed with non-update. (sweatdrops) And you'll see more with that Matsukaze second-rate spy-san too...**

**Lady E1: I think it's a nice time to ask whether you've fallen off stage with your audition...  
Director: AAAction!**

**Lady E1: ...AH! falls off  
Director: Someone call the ambulance! Next!  
I hope it's not the way it is, ne? Thanks for your constant reviewing and support! And yeah, I won the drama thingy! (does a little dance)**

**Dragonheart2: (turns wide-eyes at all those reviews you gave) Hmph, I agree. I love Saitou. Just can't resisting dumping him into the story and letting him face Kenshin for more than necessary...and yah, of course you can use the name Kentai anytime you want ( though I have NO idea what it means) and you promised you're gonna review this chapter, so! (glares menacingly) thanks for all your reviews, ho!**

**xZig-zagx: Oh! The Wind's Revenge is on! I've reviewed it! Yes, I love that comical little scene with Takehashi and Kenshin struggles for nothing...pity I have to throw Takehashi out of the scene...**

**BakaBokken: I'm still crossing my fingers for your reviews! I'm sorry you got a writer's block on Strong Will pouts I love the torture part. Bit of a shame, but Kenshin under torture is...lovely. (I think I'm some sort of pervert...) OK, please update that ficcie as soon as the writer's block get bored with you!**

**NARGIEGIRL21: Wow, thank you for that! I hope your daughter likes my story I'm but 2 years older than her, really. A kid still. You can take my email whenever you like, of course! Sorry but I don't have any other fics at the moment...if I ever start one, I'll email you ok? **


	16. Instinct: Protection and Betrayal

**Past and Future by hitokiri-san **

**A/N: So. I run into writer blocks every two chapters, poor me. And right now I have ran into a great problem (not essentially writer's block, but some theoretical time thingy) that I've been unable to solve for about three months rolls eyes so anyway, I've just turned 16, which is great; and I'm gonna get the Kenshin PS game for my birthday, which is basically greater. sighs Talking about birthday presents¡Kso, enough random ranting. On with the latest chapter...**

**Ch 16 Instinct: Protection and Betrayal**

****

_Rurouni..._

The soft, pained voice reverberating inexplicably in his head was driving him over the brim of insanity. It was getting louder, clearer now; overpowering the sound of his own footfall, of everything else that revolved about him. It was fast becoming his litany, the emotions in the voice obvious as a jagged cliff atop a roaring sea.

_Rurouni..._

It really didn't help for Kenshin to know that it was, with no doubt, Battousai's own voice... in fact, this knowledge only made matters worse. The rurouni was a man who could keep his calm with him in every circumstance; ironically, he tended to lose it every time Battousai was involved.

_Rurouni, rurouni, rurouni, rurouni!_

And that was why Himura Kenshin the rurouni was running, in a speed too fast for the naked eye to follow, to the place where he knew the voice in his head was originated. Eyes focused only ahead, arms unguarded; he would be easy prey to anyone who had half a heart to ambush him. But that was the last of his worries now.

However, there was one person who could follow each and all of his movements with the precision of a hawk.

Kenshin didn't feel that something was wrong. He'd failed to notice the person leaning just behind the bend, waiting for him.

But he did felt it as his left sleeve snagged on the blade of a katana, pulling his lighting-fast motion to an unsteady stop - and ripping his whole sleeve apart in the process.

The shock it brought must have awoken the wanderer's fogged mind, for he unsheathed the sakabatou once he'd steadied himself, pointing it in the face of ...

...One Okita Souji.

"You know," Okita said in his mild, non-threatening voice, "I could easily have skewered you in that first strike."

* * *

He waited until the hitokiri had drawn his last breath, until the unnerving amber eyes had lost all of their venom. And the smoldering golden hue was gone, replaced by a glassy, lifeless yellow; a color that was about one-fortieth percent as scary as the ordinary one.

Battousai's head lolled weakly to the side; but his eyes remained wide open, as if trying to identify the ambusher even in oblivion.

"Damn, you can't blame me," the person stared into the wide, empty orbs as he walked out from the dark with a sweep of his fabric. " It is Katsura's fault. Well, it is also him who started putting young boys on the path of no return. You are his sacrifice to the thousands of those who want him dead."

He bent over to whisper in the young hitokiri's ear, knowing that he couldn't hear it; knowing, with grand certainty, that he could never hear anything again.

"You yourself said that you would never fall for a betrayal trick. But you did; you trusted me. That is why you have to die." He smiled, a maniac smile that carried no hint of regret.

"You may have the skill any assassin would crave for, but you're young. Far too young. You have yet to learn the ugliness of a human heart, boy. Betrayal isn't just a trick, ready to be used at a particular given moment. Betrayal is life, instinct. You don't have to learn it, but you'll do it when the situation arises - naturally."

As if knowing that Battousai would only react with an emotionlessly blank stare if he weren't sprawled on the ground, the man ceased talking. Instead, his eyes caught sight of the fallen katana that had once been firmly gripped in the boy's hand. He reached for it, transfixed by the perfect arc that curved the blade; more transfixed, perhaps, by the dull carnelian color that he could imagine lining the edge of a killer's sword ... not knowing that he would never find such a color on its edge for now.

"Leave that alone." The command was abruptly spoken, as if the speaker had just turned his head around to see what the man had been doing.

The man shrugged, nonchalant. "That's just a normal katana, Kizuka. You can stop being that suspicious."

Hiroi Kizuka spared him a side-glance, disgust and irritation carefully banked away from his own eyes. He wasn't that suspicious to believe that Battousai's katana would self-destruct or impale anyone in sight when touched by an unidentified person - not that he would care if the blasted double-dealer were impaled to death - but he felt somehow...reluctant to let the said double-dealer lay a hand on the boy's weapon. He didn't have any intimate feelings for Battousai, but allowing such a cold-blooded, maniac person touch his weapon was the worst insult to the now-dead boy hitokiri.

He'd already taken the boy's life; Hiroi was not sure that his conscience would forgive him if he allowed the boy's honor to be taken away from him also.

Hiroi walked over, picking up the hitokiri's katana and gently depositing it in the numb hand of its owner, so that the assassin's finger was closed loosely around the hilt. That was all he could do for his enemy; for the young boy who had unwittingly chosen to walk this path of no return.

"I have to go for Okita-sama now ... he would be most likely interested in the events around here." _And perhaps send a few medics around for my men_. " You may choose to follow me or - if you are sensible enough, disappear on your own." His voice was business-like, with no warmth reserved for the person standing behind him. He swept off the other side of the pavement, leaving the person staring spitefully behind his back.

" Che, I hate working with you, Kizuka."

"And I you." The Shinsengumi first troop vice-captain replied evenly, cement eyes sweeping back to the boy hitokiri stranded on the ground, his own blood soaking up and darkening the already navy gi. It was a dismal sight.

And Hiroi Kizuka found his thoughts dwelling on the boy. He was young, and looked more so when his eyes wasn't sparking with waves of menace. Did he, then, have a family? If yes, did they know what he was doing for a living? Or did the boy had simply led a double life ... a smiling teenage son before his parents, a cold-blooded hitokiri before his enemies? He knew that Battousai was ready and willing to die - But was he equally willing to kill his targets in cold blood?

Hiroi had seen the killer's momentary hesitation in killing him. He didn't understand it, and would never have; if he hadn't seen for now how an assassin would return to what he truly was upon death. The blank yet accusing amber eyes screamed boyhood, and now he understood. The hitokiri was also the boy. The boy could be the hitokiri. It was one and the same.

He had murdered a boy.

"Farewell, Matsukaze." Was all Hiroi said as he vanished around the corner.

_Matsukaze._

Matsukaze, spy for the Ishinshishi and information provider for the Shinsengumi, riveted his gaze back to the blade that Battousai now held. He could not deny that he had a special attraction to the weapon, for it was, apparently, an enchanting artwork particularly designed for what it was for - killing in an instance. Battousai was dead and Hiroi was gone; no one would stop him if he wanted the blade for his own.

But the sight before him told him otherwise.

Matsukaze gaped as his gaze met the hand that held the katana securely in place. It was not numb as it should have been; contrarily, it was gripping the handle with such ferocity that for a brief moment the spy thought the metal hilt would break under the force. Nonplussed, Matsukaze stared into the hitokiri's face...

Where a pair of deadly amber eyes was directed straight at him, the hatred and anger in them almost knocking him senseless. If those had been terrifying before, it was nothing compared to the molten gold that burnt now. He was frozen on the spot, eyes glued involuntarily to what he knew was death and madness personified. Matsukaze's mind was screaming for him to get the hell out of there; but his body just didn't have the heart to obey.

Battousai stood unsteadily up, knowing - with a smirk bordered on psychosis - that his prey was going nowhere, and that he could take his time getting up. And if Matsukaze really had decided to go somewhere else, the hitokiri would immediately kill him off. It was simple as that.

"You want my katana. And so..." Battousai stated quietly as he balanced himself on the said blade. Matsukaze noted without any trace of amusement that Battousai's radiating glare had somehow managed to penetrate through his blood-red strands that obscured his eyes.

The boy raised his sword skywards, the edge of it glimmering silver in the scarlet moonlight.

"...you may have it!"

* * *

**A/N: To be truthful, I hate this chapter. This seems to be talking about nothing at all...and yes, that's my way of dragging it till I've solved the problem blushes I seem to have a talent in writing chapters which have nothing in them. Aw, wish me good luck in solving the technical problem, will you, guys? And yes, I'm proud to announce that I now seriously need INPUT! Anyone with any idea how this story should go on, please leave it in a review or email. I'm earnest, really. I sort of feel that I'm out of ammunition...**

**xZig-zagx:** Have you lost your beta reader recently? I saw you mention it in someone' s review page...but you said you've got one here, I'm confused...well, if you won't mind I may want to be one of your beta readers, if you don't mind my horrible grammar mistakes...I'm on summer vacation now and I think I have plenty of free time, although I'm trying to squeeze free time out of work.

**Justice Stryfe:** Thanks for the nice compliment, I feel so loved¡Kbut I hope this chapter will not disappoint you. (since it disappointed me) Erm, and I've left another cliffhanger around this time (cliffhanger lurks around corner) but believe me, it's not that evil. Everyone knows what's going to happen next, anyway! /nervous laugh/

****

**The sacred night: **We are in for a couple of fights-in-the-dark, believe me. Sorry for the late-as-hell update, I'm just trying to do everything at once in my summer holidays, erm, like trying to read comics and read books and draw and write a story in Chinese and write a story in English (namely this one) all at once. And I finally got the idea that I'm going nowhere and that I have to update. Aren't I great?

**Lucrecia Levrai:** Um, did I mention in my bio how I love Kenshin-Hiko moments? (not yaoi, mind you) I had it in my old bio¡Kmaybe I left it off. I love Bakumatsu, Hiko-Kenshin training moments, that sorta thing. Sorry to have let you down, I really take ages to update, do I?

**Jupiter's light:** I wonder which chapter you've got on to? Thanks for your support anyway!

**Jovian Angel:** You've reviewed this before, sure. And I'm positive that I've read your story on cheese, where Aoshi-sama is NUTS! /snicker/ I'm freaking crazy? It's sad to hear the truth, but I endure. Personally I think that working in a hospital as a volunteer five days a week from 9am to 5pm has an admirable effect in aggravating my nuttiness, and passing the psychiatric ward every day just doesn't help. I think that instead of dying, cliffhangers have an uncanny ability to duplicate themselves like germs...I believe there are two this chap. Or maybe I just work in the hospital too much.

**BakaBokken:** So you're finally back with my 15th review! /pummels a certain baka that is shaped like a bokken on the ground/ hmph! Cliffies exist for the sole purpose of annoying the heck out of readers, and that's why I'm eager in sprinkling them around. /receives anonymous glares/ I really have to call this chapter "stupid", as out of the previous 15 chapters, I hate this the most. No kidding. And, at which point I realize my story is going nowhere and I need an input to guide me in the right direction...

**Megume:** thanks for the many reviews! I think you're up to where Battousai meets the Shinsengumi with Tasuka, ne? As I know, there's no Tasuka arc in the official Kenshin manga because...drum roll I made Tasuka up. There's no such person in RK!

**PhoebeOtaku:** So I finaaly get to solve the great Otaku mystery. Another mystery, though...does that mean you're a fan of Phoebe? Or Phoebe's a fan of you? Or you're Phoebe, a fan of RK? Aw, that's getting complicated. I think it's the third, ne?


	17. Screaming to bloodshed

Past and Future by Hitokiri-san 

**A/N: So, my friends. Long time no see! School is really murdering me...and life's hectic hell since the 1st of September. I'll manage, however. An apology to those who have written to urge an update I know I'm a slowpoke! Ah, in addition, I've tried the Kenshin PS game, but had trouble with it since I don't understand any word in Japanese (sigh). And life's not giving me time to work on that, either. A plague to Mathematics! A plague to Accounts! And a plague, my readers, to school in general! **

**And yes, I've newly opened a website in which I post my pics and stuff...but its in Chinese, so you may just click the webpage on my profile page******

**Ch 17 Screaming to bloodshed**

"You know," Okita said in his mild, non-threatening voice, "I could easily have skewered you in that first strike."

Kenshin winced at the irony of Okita Souji standing there so solidly – talking to him, nonetheless...it was as if tuberculosis itself had reconsidered its choice of victim during this hectic time affair, deciding to take pity on the young, cheerful samurai called Okita Souji. Perhaps it was experimenting how well the Imperialists would fare if Okita had not been plagued by the disease.

Composing as well as he could, the wanderer exhaled sharply. Well, so much for trying to hide his features from the Shinsengumi. He didn't doubt the truthfulness of Okita's statement; unless his memory was severely deformed, he did recall that Okita wasn't someone who normally enjoyed boasting. Or take it the other way; the Shinsengumi gumi-chou simply didn't have a need to boast.

Hell, maybe he was being humble already. On top of skewering the rurouni, he could have minced him into shreds at the same time.

Kenshin let his hands fall to his side, knowing the sole reason why he was still alive; and knowing, on top of that, that reaching for his katana was the most efficient way to start an hour-long fight in which he had no confident that he would come out alive. So the logical solution was that: do not pose yourself to be a threat unless you are forced to.

Quite to Kenshin's expectation, Souji relaxed ever so slightly at his gesture of peace. The captain went a few steps nearer, the beloved katana now dangling loosely in his left hand. It took only a disinterested glance for the redhead to see through the seemingly harmless blade – if Kenshin was not careful enough, he might as well find his head being cut off by the same "harmless" sword. Dropping his guard was not an option. But there were things on this earth that even the notorious ex-Battousai had no control of...

Okita strode forward, his delicate, almost girlish features catching the pale moonlight. Just a look at the supposedly dead man was nearly enough to make Kenshin gape – abruptly, sunken memories in his head decided to make themselves known.

* * *

Inside his mind's eyes, a squad of men with turquoise haori materialized behind Okita – blades gleaming a ghostly grey in the abyssal night. A hundred katana, the lanterns leading the way to hell. But none of these lanterns, he knew, would ever shine as brightly as his would. 

Hitokiri Battousai held in his hand the brightest lantern to send his victims to hell.

And so the amber-eyed monster raised his lantern, letting its rays radiate towards the wide-eyed Shinsengumi facing him. He sped forward in a lethal thrust...

...And the ground was scattered with newly mutilated bodies, all handiwork of the young assassin; who would then surveyed his newest kills with a sort of perverse detachment. The scene itself seemed to mock the fragility of life – how the spirits, sprinting and uttering war cries at the last moment, would extinguish as fast as a lantern could, leaving in their departure a couple of unmoving shells - which then would have completely no value to this world anymore.

The boy hitokiri snapped his katana into the sheath with an inaudible click; revealing, as he went away, the chiseled, teenage face for the hunter's moon to see. It was getting more difficult each time, to pretend that his foes were nothing more than a network of capillaries and nerves; and that his job was only to put to a stop that pumping, contracting organ that was the core of all these complex tubes. How could he, anyway, when what he saw in his preys' eyes were smiling kids calling for their fathers, or beautiful wives waiting behind the frame of their doors? How could he, then, when what that pumping heart supported were emotions too raw to be evil, beliefs too pure to be hypocritical?

How, could he?

He made a note to avoid his victims' eyes next time.

In the vision, Battousai sighed; an action that was so alien to his current status as a cold, unfeeling creature. He was a kid caught in the men's war – but as for that, no one needed to know. And no one needed to understand. He never understood – so why should anyone else understand what was going on with his life?

"May you find happiness in the afterlife." His soft prayer was soon lost with the passing wind, and those nocturnal souls that heard it never understood.

* * *

_Kuso, it isn't the time for this!_

Squashing the surfacing of more sinister memories with a bite on his tongue, Kenshin once again cursed his untimely remembrance. What the hell was wrong with him that he started to lose his focus to his past at the only moment when his attention could not cease? Why should he wander in days gone by, when he had his past to rescue? Upon reaching this point, the redheaded swordsman calmed himself, deciding that the pair of them couldn't keep staring at each other till forever.

"Is that the usual way you greet somebody?" Kenshin inquired, fidgeting with his ripped sleeve in indication. He didn't like the way Okita was toying with him.

Such an unreasonable inquiry was enough for the ex-hitokiri to be classified a fiend. Okita, however, just returned with a curious half-smile,"usually not. But you had been too busy running to hear my vocal greeting – so addressing you with my blade seemed the best choice at the moment," he inclined his head, pit black eyes crinkling up in a gentle smile, "if I have caused you any inconvenience, I apologize for that. Demo..."

The wanderer observed his features with an almost blank look, knowing without guessing what was behind the mild face and soft words. He didn't have to wait long for the next part of the wolf's sentence, however.

"...I believe, sir, that you are responsible for wounding a Shinsengumi member tonight. Just for your reference, his name is Taku Ikasaki. And for this, I would like you to accompany me back to the Shinsengumi headquarters." His voice was pleasant and polite, but anyone who had briefly acquainted the captain knew that when Okita gumi-chou used the "I would like" phrase, it was more of a command than a request. Simply put, the young commander was asking you to "obey, or die".

Many who caught him saying this phrase learnt the lesson soon enough. Unfortunately, none of them – except one - had survived long enough to counsel others on this matter, so this habit of his remained a secret among his enemies. But by some weird twist of fate, that exception was currently kept in the very presence of Okita Souji, so Kenshin tensed considerably when the words "I would like" registered in his mind.

He sensed that if he didn't say something sensible in short notice, things were going to turn as ugly as ugly could be, and real soon. Taku Ikasaki...that name didn't register in his sea of memories. But he wasn't an idiot; simple logic told him that this Taku person must be the spy-san from earlier on.

His answer, then, was plain and prompt. "Sessha didn't do it." Well, basically he wasn't responsible for hurting Takehashi, but technically he and Battousai were the same person, so maybe he was responsible after all. Following the "technical" wasn't that wise, so Kenshin decided that he might as well keep with the basics.

Okita frowned, detecting no lie from the rurouni's ki. Kenshin wasn't even bothering to mask his ki – he hadn't lied, and he knew it. A trifle puzzled, the gumi-chou was led to doubt his own judgment. Had he went for the wrong culprit, after all? His sixth sense told him he didn't. Every possible reason agreed to the sixth sense...save his ki sensing ability alone. Senses were sometimes so contradictory.

It was getting a little knotty, but the young Shinsengumi didn't allow himself to be fazed.

"And suppose I took your previous answer at face value. Who then, sir, are you? Unless you are Ishin, why should you flee upon the Shinsengumi's arrival?" Souji pressed on, his pit-black eyes bearing into his companion's amethyst ones. The wanderer almost smiled, knowing that he didn't have to apply any false information to this inquiry. His rurouni mask slipped on automatically, uttering a phrase that he had proclaimed a million times to various people; particularly to a certain blue-eyed kendo instructor.

"Sessha wa rurouni."

"Sou ka."

"...And sessha is not an Ishin." There, I'm being truthful.

"Aa."

Kenshin paused slightly, allowing Okita to scrutinize his features before smiling in reply.

"However, sessha would be surprised if any ordinary samurai desires to meet the Shinsengumi head-on, especially at nights when they would be additionally suspected."

From the tilting of his slender brows, Kenshin could see that his ex-adversary was faintly displeased – Okita had, perhaps, taken his words to be a personal insult.

"And how, could this be?"

"Let me explain. I'll start with a question: Okita-san..." - the captain's gaze sparked upon the mention of his name – "...what does men in your division usually do when they run into unidentified samurai in the dead of the night?"

Okita's answer held no doubt. "Stop them for an interrogation."

"And if they refuse to answer?"

Okita could now see what this question was leading to. Anticipating that his next answer would give the stranger an advantage in this debate, he nonetheless went on with the truth.

"My men are trained to cut them down."

Kenshin nodded, mentally applauding his honor in sticking to nothing but the truth. "See here, Okita-san – I have no death wish at the current moment, and neither do my companions. Is that enough to answer your second question?"

"Hai!" Being quick to see the humor in every circumstance, Okita laughed heartily. The knot was cleverly untangled, but somehow the persistent feeling – the feeling that the man before him wasn't some common passer-by – was not to be pacified. Someone that good couldn't pass for a passer-by, that much was sure. He glanced down at the katana still grasped in his hand, angling lazily towards the ground.

He still had something to prove; and this time, it would be once and for all.

* * *

_Betrayal, blood, anger, and death._

An inhuman scream that seemed to be wrenched from the depths of hell itself, amid the crazed laugh that reverberated throughout Kyoto; so bitter with raging emotions that even air itself had trouble containing it. And above, the carnelian moon surveyed the picture of manslaughter with far-off dispassion.

"TENCHU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Half an arm, from shoulder to elbow, went flying into the air. Battousai watched with distorted fascination as it crashed into a nearby wall, the blood spraying from it covering its former owner from head to toe. Nearby laid two other sections of what appeared to be a human limb, so submerged in gushing red liquid that what it once resembled was nearly unrecognizable.

Matsukaze whimpered in pain, too drained to cry out anymore. He looked up at his torturer, then gasped as he beheld the smoldering amber eyes so deprived of sanity. The hitokiri had now adopted a persona of no mercy – and the double-dealer's past actions didn't exactly call for mercy either. Thus he only watched in wide-eyed horrification as the manslayer's own blood dripped softly to the ground, mingling with the spy's newly-spent blood. Blood calls for blood...he was forced to recall this saying.

"Onegai...let me die." The plea was rasped off parched lips. It was the last wish of the prey – to be granted death without passing this purgatory of intense pain.

Battousai blinked as if in consideration, then a purely Satan smile grew at his lips. "Die? How little do you think of life, Matsukaze-san! Life can take many forms..." he began conversationally, meanwhile pinning the man's writhing body to the ground with a throw of his wakizashi – embedding it into his prey's left thigh.

"You can, of course, live with an unscathed body and an unscarred heart. You can have no limbs, yet you live on. You can be burnt with oil and timber, yet you live on. You can also lose all you have in a day, and yet you live on. You can be betrayed and sentenced to death, yet you may live on...anyway, Matsukaze-san, do you know how difficult it is for a person to fully die?" Battousai tapped a finger on his blood-covered cheek, innocence written all over the handsome yet childish face.

"Kisama...LET ME DIE!" Matsukaze would have considered striking Battousai if his limbs weren't lying out of reach.

Battousai pouted."Swearing isn't proper, Matsukaze-san. It makes people reluctant to listen to what you have to say."

"You demon...you bastard! You... killed them all, every one... of them, when they... are of no threat to you! And...you, you slaughtered them in oblivion!" The man gasped, his whole frame shaking in fear and anger mixed together. How could a creature of such ferocity, of such perverseness be extracted from the body of a boy not older than fifteen? He had deemed the boy to have skills enough to match the flying dragon, but this alter persona...it was too much. Too overwhelming. He was in denial; denial of his failure, denial of the final fate that befell him.

Battousai threw a glance backwards, taking in the disfigured corpses of the Shinsengumi, the gaijin, all of them. He didn't feel anything; it was just as well. "They are dead thanks to you, Matsukaze-san. You made me realize that when I'm back to this world, I'm back. Meiji is just a laughable dream. The rurouni's way is true; it is noble beyond measure. But nobility could not be applied to someone like you, it would not, then, be justice. In a world of chaos, only extremities could make a difference. And when the difference is made, the rurouni's justice can then thrive."

The double-dealer now realized with a start that Battousai had not been out of his mind. He was, in fact, never more clear as to what the world was about...

"Thanks for teaching me about betrayal...I now understand. Dead people won't ever betray my identity, ne?" A cold edge had crept into the hitokiri's voice, indicating the game was nearly over.

Matsukaze took in the speech which he had no minimum understanding of, before closing his eyes in finality. Battousai was right: it was incredibly, incredibly hard to die.

His body was carved into six more pieces before he finally ceased living.

* * *

In another part of the city, a demented chuckle finally found its way into a rurouni's heart. He started mentally, recognizing what it was at once. 

Save him, anata. Save him from being forced to do _that _again.

Kenshin exhaled sharply, his breath catching at his throat.

_That, that, that._

The damage was now unsalvageable.

* * *

**A/N: This chapter seems to have been possessed by a perverse spirit...so, Battousai's insane, Kenshin's going nowhere, and stuff. I'd better start with the reviews!**

**XZig-zagX: You didn't hate the last chapter? I'm glad! I'm also really glad that your beta reader is back now that you'll be needing her! I had half a mind to actually murder Battousai; but since that may result in my being killed off, I thought better of it. The guy that controls Time...his name is Zenei, but he'll around at the right time; you'll see. Well, see ya next time!**

**PhoebeOtaku: Who here isn't an RK otaku, anyway? (galres around for potential objectors) I see none, at least in my line of sight I'm happy to announce that I'm out of that thingy called a writer's block already, though I fancied it saying "I will be back..." or something of the sort. 10 of my profit in fanfic? Um...that'll be a lot. Reeeeeeally. Talk about virtue banknotes flying around...**

**BakaBokken: I'm glad it's not entirely unacceptable! You see, I'm out of the little block already, so yeah, that's good. Sorry for inconsistent updating, that's partly due to the fact that I'll be having HKCEE this year – which means Hong Kong Certificate Exam...and I'm fixed on getting a few As or something. Which means having to work hard...-- whoever the hell first came up with the stupid idea of exams, anyway?**

**Night-Owl123: Sorry to have kept you waiting! Here is the 17th chapter...finally out! You'll have to excuse me my schedules this year isn't too loose, really. I'll promise not to abandon this story, ok?**

**Ms. Zeal: A visit to Hiko-sama? (sneaky smile) wouldn't it sound like a certain fic I know, with a hikari-Kenshin and yami-Battousai? Actually, I always find a lot of similarities between your fic and mine. Both naturally Kenshin-Battousai, both based on their closer-than-brothers relationship. I love your fic. And you're right, Katsura's one person I'd never leave out of the picture...**

**Dragonheart2: Thou should'st forgive thy sister not only seven times, but seventy-times-seven. And alas! Thy sister shall continually sin against thee by applying more cliffhangers...and yet thou forgives her, just as she forgives you in meditating whether thou should'st forgive her...well, random ranting. Thy sister sends her love to thy reviewing!**

**Jovial Angel: (Puts on serious Kenshin persona) "Sessha says that the existence of Cliffhangers, like the Amakakeru no Hirameki, is based on the ultra-tension of excessive work and continually verbal abuse by your shishou...feeding on this double power source, cliffhangers eventually acquire force enough to duplicate and drive other people crazy...that they do..." (stares at the duplication process of a few cliffies) ;; okay, why is it that people in the RK community loves the very existence of pocky? Tea is my thing, after all I _am _Chinese. But the mysterious force that lies behind pocky is yet to be solved...and whether or not you find out what's gonna happen doesn't change the fact that someone will die! And get mutilated! MWHAHAHAHHAHAH...**

**Koros89: Mmm...getting the rurouni captured may be a bit disastrous, but that can be really exciting. And you're right, I'll have an awful time pulling that off! Seems like I'll have to explain for a bit why Battousai can't sense anyone's ki, since quite some people have been querying me on this one. And I really hope you can enjoy the chapter, since more excitable scenes is to come! (Okita and Kenshin talking all chapter long...isn't it a bit boorrrrrrrring?)**

**LuCrecia LeVrai: Well, I generally have no intense objection to shounen-ai, though I find it a little...strange. It may be my tradition, but Chinese people usually can't readily accept shounen-ai – or shoujo-ai, for that matter. Anyway! I don't even write romance, so what can I say?**

**CeeCee: Well yes, my English teacher used to say that my compositions have a sarcastic taste to the world in general. Yeah, I'm conscious that I would sometimes mock the characters, and that's all for good fun . OAV! I love the RK OAV. It may seem boring, even a little brutal at first, but when you get used to it, you find it really beautiful. And the Kenshin-Okita moment (well, in general the part when words like Director...blah blah blah and Character Designer...blah blah blah slides across the screen) is so lovable! I love Okita! **

**Nekotsuki: that's your first time? Thank you for continuing with this, to stay with a story for 16 chapters is no small feat! **

**Liemtenshi: Basically I work as a volunteer in my summer holidays, then stopped when I have to go to school. Man, it's impossible to work at a hospital and study at school in the same time? I can't duplicate myself, like the way with Kenshin and Battousai...and duplicating my past as a two-year-old is pretty much useless, anyway. Ja!**


	18. The Cost of Interrogation

**Past and Future by Hitokiri-san**

**A/N: I ain't _that_ slow, am I? Only half a month to update! (shields my ears from thunderous boos and curses) My pathetic excuse for a reason is that school has decided I have too much time to dream about marrying Kenshin, and so set more tests in attempt to quench it. Not effective, though. I confess that I _still_ want to marry Kenshin, no matter what! **

**Ch 18 The cost of interrogation**

Oblivion-fogged hazel eyes stretched lazily open, after an agonizing period of lapse. Takehashi blinked once - sluggishly as if he was a frog newly waking from the year's hibernation. A number of objects, he discovered immediately, were positioned there to meet his eyes...

The face-up position he was in gave him an invariable opportunity to observe the uppermost layer of the building...

A wooden, square-patterned ceiling.

His sight fell on a bend curving the ceiling towards a vertical position...

A beam, connecting the ceiling to the floor.

Attached to the beam was a tall, lanky man with narrowed amber eyes; taking a drag from a whitish tube.

A wolf.

Wait. A wolf? All alarm sirens began to wail in Takehashi's head, and that was when his mind woke up with a virtual squeal, bewildered by the mental sirens going off all at once. And that was not _any _wolf, for Kami's sake, but the notorious Shinsengumi Third Troop Gumi-chou; the fiercest wolf in the whole Shinsengumi, if not the best! Takehashi began wondering fuzzily about his lack of luck in these few days – and decided that Himura Battousai was responsible for that.

The wolf's name, officially, was Saitou Hajime; and he was looking down on the spymaster with a mixture of bemused contemplation and predatory coolness. The two expressions, however, had combined to set Saitou's hard, razor-sharp features into an emotionless one. Takehashi tensed ever so slightly – he hated it when Saitou was thinking, partly because the Miburo was ten times more dangerous that way; and partly because the Ishin spy could always imagine him cooking up new combat strategies, new patrol schedules that could cause the whole Choshu han to capsize altogether.

"Sai-Sai...tou-san." The Ishin addressed Saitou rather groggily, noting that his mind seemed to be malfunctioning, in a way. He was having problems getting his bearings straight and concentrating on an object for a short while made his head hurt. Takehashi cursed whatever being that made him think of putting poison into his darts - not just any poison, either, but the kind of snake poison that could kill a person in less than twenty minutes. Luckily or unluckily, that was when Saitou chose to mention it.

"Thank Kami you're alive, ahou. Another five minutes, and you'd be in merry hell with a bunch of your comrades."

_As if I don't know that._ The spy scoffed – mentally – while physically too weak to offer any response. He closed his eyes again; trying to piece his mind together. However disoriented, he secretly understood that the third troop captain wanted something with_ him. _Saitou Hajime, as most had known, simply did not have enough compassion to look after fallen inferiors – at least that was what they thought.

Maintaining a look of confused fear, the spy observed the Shinsengumi captain through half-lidded eyes. His thoughts wandered to Himura then – the Himuras, actually – and he hoped that for once the two thickskulled redheads wouldn't mess things up badly. He was astounded by the Battousai's simplicity, at first; Takehashi had never believed the hitokiri to be a demon driven by nothing but bloodlust, that he was to be considered something close to a monster. He had snorted at those superficial assumptions; believing, instead, that Battousai was a fascinating creature – one of insanity and cold-heartedness, yet having the complex wisdom to override madness; Bloodthirsty, yet never succumbing only to instincts: every action of his involved calculating opportunities and risks. After all, he knew Katsura-san – the man would never entrust the whole Choshu han to a ruthless man with no brains. If Himura merely operated on brute force alone, then only Kami would know where the hell this hitokiri was leading the Ishinshishi to.

But then, his theory was recently proven wrong. Himura Battousai met both of the above assumptions, yet he did not. He was simplicity and complexity etched together – simple, in the way that he held his ideal future above all else, ruthlessly paving the path to a new era, however far away; complex, in all his inner turmoil, his double character of childishness and deadly hitokiri senses; in his reluctance to kill, his denial of blood and death; belying the lethal, vicious art in his possession.

Takehashi was curious. Laughing at the Battousai's apparent clumsiness, but nonetheless curious about his contradictory character. Katsura-san had always been elusive about the boy; there had always been some emotions tugging silently at his voice whenever he spoke the hitokiri's name. Was it guilt? Remorse? Care, or doubtfulness? The spymaster was pretty sure that all above had been included.

A sudden stench of tobacco invading his nostrils reminded him of the other occupant in the room. Saitou had been silent, allowing the spy to brood on Himura on the while. Takehashi steeled his mind, quitting his contemplation on Himura as he focused on dealing with the wolf at hand. A combat of wits and feigning, then.

He was sure he couldn't beat Saitou in any kind of duel with any kind of weapon. But in a duel of pretense, he was positive Saitou wouldn't get the best of him.

Saitou went a few steps closer to the futon, his silhouette positively looming over Takehashi; a slight, oh-so-familiar wolfish smile curled at his lips.

"Tell me, boy – he who hurt you, is he worth my time?"

* * *

"...Kenkaku-san?"

Kenshin straightened his back as his mind finally registered that it actually referred to him. He wondered how many times Okita had repeated that in order to get his attention.

"Hai?" The rurouni turned violet inquiry at the Shinsengumi captain, his mind noting the momentary, subtle spike in Okita's ki. The young gumi-chou had noted his absence of mind, and had thought something on it. This made him uneasy. Very uneasy.

"Anou...kenkaku-san," Okita's cheerful smile erupted in full force again as he walked alongside the rurouni, who previously didn't really have a clue as to where he was going; his mind was somewhere else, delved too far away to pay actual attention. His plan, as for now, was to get to his younger counterpart as soon as possible before the hitokiri could further damage himself. Kenshin peered over at the beaming captain, slightly frowning. Unfortunately, Okita proved to be a big hindrance to his plan.

He'd have to dump Okita behind without arousing the fellow swordsman's suspicions.

The next part of Souji's sentence, though, caused his train of thought to fly out of the rail and crash its way downhill altogether.

"As an apology for today's misunderstanding, I'd like to offer you my companionship while you search for your other friend. To avoid any more misunderstandings with other patrolling Shinsengumi groups, I hope." He winked at the redhead, his excessively jolly expression belying the formal wordings. Inwardly, Okita observed the stranger's reaction with rapt attention. This would be the last temptation, a good chance to let the stranger err. Kenshin's explanation to his fleeing from Okita was reasonable, in a way; in the other, Souji was not sure he trusted the rurouni that much. If he had a chance to see with his eyes what the "second companion" of the stranger was about, it might help him to decide whether he had faith in the minute redhead. Or, more possibly, not.

For a moment, crinkling charcoal and abyssal violet stared at each other, one testing for a reaction, the other smart enough not to offer any, except for a thoughtful little look.

Smart as it was, it would be exceptionally weird –and yes, impolite - if someone asked you a question and you just stared blankly back as though the asker had spouted an extra limb or two. Kenshin learnt that pretty quickly.

Kenshin breathed, the mildly pleasant rurouni mask firmly in place. Answer yes, or no? If he answered no, it didn't seem as if Okita would leave him alone, anyway. He knew, too well, that Okita Souji hadn't a single intention to let him be right now. Answering yes was downright crazy. Okita and Battousai meeting prematurely was almost the worst scenario he could think of, provided that Battousai was...was...the rurouni didn't want to perceive the state his younger self was in. There would be a time when he _must_ brace himself for that – but now, it would be too much. Distracting. Overwhelming. He couldn't afford to do that right now, when he already had the Shinsengumi captain breathing down his neck.

Okita was prepared to wait the night out for the rurouni's answer when an intruder dismissed both Kenshin from his answering and Okita from his probing.

"OKITA GUMI-CHOU!"

The scrunched black eyes let go of their agreeable façade, if only for a moment; diverted, instead, to meet the one that he could instantly recognize as one of his men.

Kenshin could feel the newcomer silencing abruptly at one look on his gumi-chou's face. Okita had his back to him, his features out of sight; but the rurouni could easily imagine his former nemesis's expression as of now.

"What is the matter, Sengaki?" Souji voice held no trace of the gnawing frustration he felt at the time. Keep his temper in perfect check, he had reminded himself over all these years. The lesson had been well learnt, an imprinted reminder on his soul for the rest of his short life. It wasn't going to change now.

"Anou..." the man began. Then, encouraged by a little nod from his captain, went nearer to deliver the message into Okita's ear.

Himura watched, temporarily forgotten, as Okita frowned marginally at the spoken message. Observed with a slight tensing of his shoulder as the cheerful, easy-going face wiped itself of outlying emotions. Curious, indeed, how the young captain would betray his thoughts by showing no emotion at all, rather than the contrary.

That blank look in itself suggested to him that he was healed of his current trouble. Okita had, in one way or the other, been distracted from his untimely interest with him – he hoped.

Okita turned back to his redheaded companion with an intensity that Kenshin couldn't just describe at the moment. The thin frame before him told of suspicion and anticipation, of doubts and urgency...yet the ex-hitokiri had no idea what had been the cause. His eyes flitted to Sengaki, who was eyeing him with an openly accusing look. Kenshin's hand instinctively dropped to the hilt of his sakabatou at that expression.

"Is that it?" Okita's quiet inquiry had Himura's nerve on end. What_ it _was, and whether _it _was or was not, was beyond his ability to answer. So he responded with an equally blank look as Okita's, and an involuntary blink.

The Ichibantai gumi-chou sent him a long, searching look; before turning on his heels and striding quickly in the opposite direction, his inferior trailing behind like a silent shadow. Remembering something, he halted in his steps; tossing a minute object backwards in Kenshin's general direction.

"I would like you to keep this, kenkaku-san. Until we meet again." With that, he continued on his way, face set in the same tensely empty expression as before.

Which left a totally bewildered rurouni standing stunned in his wake, staring down at what he recognized as a Japanese chess piece bearing a distinctive symbol – which he quickly identified as the same one marking Saitou's medicine box when he had come along the dojo, in the disguise of a medicine seller.

The symbol of a Shinsengumi.

He pocketed it, snapping out of his reminiscing trance with a snap. He had better things to do at the moment than silly memory-replaying, he told himself.

He made a dash in another direction, where he knew his past and future were now playing chaos in the hand of a boy called Himura Battousai.

* * *

Chaos, that was the word.

The aforementioned boy squatted, inspected what happened to be part of a ribcage – clinging with severed muscles and softer tissues – with a distinctly apprehensive look on the stark, beautiful face. Wasn't that he felt anything. Or, he did feel something, if hollowness could be counted as a feeling. It was just that – he_ couldn't_ feel any normal feelings anymore. It was even worse than his former mixture of extreme savageness - derived from the shock of being so blatantly betrayed for the first time, and by the hand of someone he was so bent on protecting – gentler misery, and the crazed feeling of total lost and abandonment. Like a scapegoat in its wicked wanderings.

It had always been like this – when he couldn't feel anything at all, it meant that one small part of his soul had died. Again. The horror had become so intense that his spirit had plainly frozen, numbed by the injury; and died, little by little. Sometimes he was just a walking puppet, living on the Choshu's order. Nothing more, nothing less.

Time died. Reason died. Emotion died.

His heart was struggling to maintain its ungainly beating. Failing in its attempt. The blood loss was devastating to his body, and more was still gushing out while he was in this stationary position. Frankly said, his life would be in serious danger even if he had treated the wounds instantly. With his recent abandonment of it, it was getting even worse.

He paid it no heed.

And when the all-too-familiar presence approached him from afar, his soul was already too lost in the bloodshed to recognize.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry for all those readers who is under the impression that Battousai has "gone crazy without reason." My point is, Battousai doesn't just go crazy and start chopping random people up. It was Matsukaze's betrayal that shocked him to the core. Matsukaze was, in his eyes, a younger voice of innocence and dependence; and though Battousai had been gruff with him he had wished to protect him. His final plot against Battousai (and plotting on his life, also!) was a spiritual wound to the teenage assassin. His emotions surged immediately with anger, confusion, and extreme hurt...so he seemed like a cornered animal, having the impression that the while world was against him. This is the cause for his "craziness". **

**Nekotsuki: Oh! I just noticed that you are the same person who wrote Tanabata Jasmine. Dense, am I? (smiles) and yeah, you said that you won't be able to update as frequently as usual, if I remember correctly (something about starting a course?) Real life does want all your attention, ne?**

**Ms Zeal: Um, I guess you're right. After all, Hiko hasn't seen his baka deishi in ages, so maybe that'd work. Same technique: pose Kenshin as Battousai. Ah, and about Battousai's bloodthirsty persona thing, I realized a lot of readers got lost...so I have to add that long, long paragraph in. Okita vs Kenshin? Unfortunately, I have the same little idea that Okita would be beaten to the ground, and that won't be cool. So...Okita went off! Not for no reason, but hey!**

**XZig-zagX: Bloodlust usually derives from reading too much RK...so much for being a psycho. I think we, action people, are regular night-prowling blood-craving vampires (yeah, talk about Halloween) Been enjoying your Amber Eyed Angel, though a bit lazy to review...gomen!**

**BakaBokken: I guess my writing after the writer's block is a bit...psychologically off. Insane, if you want to put it simply. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, as our comrade ESP has said, "I don't like my heroes sane." Hehehe. And when are you going to update your story?**

**Night-Owl123: Sorry for the slow update! I aort of found that my update speed is decreasing over time...sigh...alas for real life! **

**Hikari Tsuki Chi: Oops. Battousai's not necessarily "going crazy"...I guess you can better put it traumatized. And Kenshin is in for psychological depression, that's for sure. This mess, as you said, is definitely not going to straighten out nicely; but whether or not Kenshin's future is affected...hey, confidential information!**

**PhoebeOtaku: More free time than usual? Mine is the contrary. I'd most likely failed Economics today...whew, all about GDP and GNP and stuff that I have no minimum understanding of. I'm glad you like the story. This chapter has more Okita-Kenshin interactions, by the way!**

**Megume: Mmmm, I've almost forgotten what chapter 8 is about (talk about planning my story) okay, entrance into the Bakumatsu. To say the truth, I rather dislike that part (smirk)**

**Jupiter's Light: Oh, so you're on chapter 8 too...thanks for reading! I hope this story continues to pique your curiosity.**

**Barbara Arvardan: Read it in a single breath? Jeez...that must take hours. I've grown so tired of reading my earlier work over and over again, so that I could correct the grammatical mistakes I made somewhere in 2003...thanks for your compliment! I really need it. **


	19. A Soul's Reconciliation

Past and Future by Hitokiri-san (Beta reader: Nekotsuki)

**A/N: One whole year…(twitches) I have no excuse, except falling madly in love with Fullmetal Alchemist. But conscience states that I should not leave a story unfinished, so here you are. I am trying my best to trace my plot from where I left it rotting…and an apology to my reviewers and my lovely beta, Nekotsuki. I _really_ have no excuse. I just hope that this story hasn't been forgotten...**

**Ch 19 A Soul's Reconciliation**

_It had been raining blood._

There was nothing melodramatic in that phrase, nothing exotic or addictively beautiful in its rarity. In fact, it was the first coherent thought that entered his mind as he stepped across the alley, eyes stretched to an unnaturally wide extent as his mind strived to digest the horror laid before him.

The area was deserted. Deserted, save for the multiple corpses lining every stretch of space imaginable, and the thoroughly drenched creature kneeling amidst it all; so easily, easily definable even from such a distance. Kenshin studiously avoided the lifeless, blank faces, preferring to focus on the only living human in the area. Some part of him was already immune to the gruesome sight - it wasn't the first time that he'd encountered a scene like this, though it seldom escalated to this level of repulsiveness. His personal opinion of blood and death aside, at least he had become used to such obscenities as a professional killer.

Another part of him, the part that could still recoil from shock and fear, was screaming that the perspective was all wrong; he, the killer, wasn't supposed to be an audience, wasn't supposed to watch as his younger counterpart struggled to deal with the dual burden of pain and guilt. He was _in _his own past, after all; why was he so powerless to change things for the better? Couldn't he have deterred himself from the destructive path of the hitokiri, to the benefit of his victims in particular, and mankind in general?

Because, a voice mused sedately inside his head, it was a path that could not be avoided at any cost. All the shortened lives and bloodshed against a whole new era…the trade itself might not be equivalent, but in that time of desperate chaos, it would have been _necessary_. He would have chosen the same path had he been allowed to start over; that was an unpleasant fact. It was madness made logical, a madness that could very well have prevailed in a world of havoc.

Kenshin ignored the voice, because it was right.

If it weren't for the boy…if he hadn't developed this newfound protectiveness towards the child know as Himura Battousai…things would never have been this complicated.

"Himura…" Kenshin was right in front of the huddling figure before he knew it, voice softened to a mere whisper. Torn between the desire to soothe his younger self or to punch his foolish head in, the rurouni was proud at how calm the greeting sounded. The flaming head before him was bowed, stray strands coming loose from the customary topknot to hide the child's features from view. It was impossible to guess the boy's state of mind as of now; Kenshin wasn't sure he wanted to, either. It was taking all his will not to consider the fact that those men around them were _mutilated_, had died an agonizing death, and that _he_ – however indirectly – was responsible for this. This path of thought had madness as its destiny.

The wanderer didn't ask _why _the younger boy did it, because it was only so apparent; didn't tell him that everything would be all right, when it obviously wouldn't be. Didn't confront the hitokiri with accusations and screams, as it wouldn't help the matter any. Instead, Kenshin caved into a sudden streak of paternal instinct – he reached forward to fold the blood-soaked teenager into his arms, to offer the comfort that words alone could not bring.

Thus he was totally caught off guard when Battousai, who didn't seem to have registered his presence before, cut him deep across the thighs with a swift battoujutsu; too late to recognize the chilling tone of voice his counterpart so often adopted on the brink of desperate assault.

"_STAY AWAY FROM ME_."

That was how the older swordsman found himself falling onto his knees with a pained hiss, gazing directly into frozen pools of molten amber. Behind the obscuring tendrils, Battousai's face was a semblance of madness; breath coming in ragged pants as he assessed his metaphorical brother with a small, _insane_ smile that made his counterpart flinch involuntarily. Strange though it was, Kenshin had long since taken for granted the fact that Battousai _wouldn't_ hurt him, that he understood the boy – his past – well enough to ensure that he had no inclination to violence towards his future self.

It seemed, now, that a man's past and future could not always understand each other perfectly.

And for the first time in the whole eventful day, Kenshin realized that he was _afraid_. Afraid to die by his own hands,ironic as it was; afraid that he would be killed in this strange dimension, leaving his friends to wonder where he could possibly have gone.

It reminded him of all the times he'd willing and eagerly thought of suicide – and was this not a more complicated scenario of self-destruction? It also reminded him of the final,_ ultimate_ lesson that he'd learned in the face of death…

He did not want to die.

* * *

The wanderer could see his own reflection squeezed into the teenager's eyes, and beyond that, the mesmerizing arc of silver. Battousai had repositioned his katana, aiming for a horizontal stab instead of the lateral slash of before, and Kenshin had the horrible suspicion that his counterpart was already _far too gone _to realize what he was doing and who he was trying to kill. Anticipating the worst, the ex-manslayer sprang into action – the sakabatou was out in a flash, parrying the katana before it reached its target. Sparks flew from the contact, both man and boy struggling to dislodge the other's weapon with little success. Kenshin had to marvel at the hitokiri's strength and stamina; it had seemed to him, at first sight, that Battousai was on the very verge of collapse – the bloody battle must have caused him fatigue and a few injuries at least. But then, he supposed, fighting with yourself was never an easy thing to do.

It occurred to Kenshin how utterly_ ridiculous_ the current situation was. Ridiculous, that he should be forced to fight with his shadow self for no apparent reason; ridiculous, that Battousai should dare to pick a fight with him when he was only attempting to help. It was time to put this antic to an end.

Frowning in concentration, the ex-manslayer retracted his blade abruptly; unprepared, Battousai lurched forward, his sword biting into his counterpart's shoulder with a sickening spurt of blood. Kenshin paid no heed to his latest injury, one fist flashing out to strike Battousai hard across the jaw. There was disappointment on Kenshin's countenance as the younger man was sent sprawling across the corpse-cluttered street.

"What the _hell_…" Kenshin ground out, rising on legs that had gone wobbly with severe blood loss, "do you think you're doing?"

He had fully expected Battousai to lash out again, even with his blade out of reach, so it startled him when the boy raised his head to face him, the sheer hopelessness in Battousai's eyes cutting off anything he had to say.

"Why…why do you have to see this?" There was a certain tremor in the boy's voice that threatened to erupt into hysteria at any time. Battousai's voice was sharp and ragged now, almost child-like in its nature.

"You don't have to see this! You could have been in your own time! I…" the rest of his words were lost in a wet cough; Battousai was throwing up blood in the next instance, breath shallow and uneven as he struggled with the overwhelming nausea that had taken over his whole body. Kenshin's eyes were wide with shock; amidst the entire blood-soaked scene, he had failed to notice the deep gash across the lad's chest. He was at Battousai's side in an instance, any disappointment that he might have harbored promptly forgotten.

"There…let's get you to some place safe first. You're quite a mess, you know?" The wanderer's tone was tender as he gathered the boy into a secure hold, opting to leave the scene as soon as possible so that Battousai could be treated properly. It hit him with a sudden clarity that his past was _dying_, might actually be dead soon if he didn't hurry enough. That notion was enough to prompt him into action.

The pale hand that had suddenly fisted into his gi held Kenshin in place; he was momentarily thrown by how vulnerable, how _dependent_ the boy could be despite appearances. Conceding that he should reassure the boy before moving on, Kenshin paused, staring down into eyes half-lidded with exhaustion and strain.

"I…I've always known…that you don't want to be reminded of my time. I know you don't want to remember what I am, and what you were. I'm sorry…I have never wanted you to hate me."

_Hate?_ What was he talking about? Kenshin was dazed with incomprehension. In all this turmoil, the word "hate" seemed completely out of place. How could he hate someone who was dying, vulnerable and so very young in his eyes? How could he hate a part of his soul that - if he was honest enough to admit it – he had cared for more than his life? The question in itself made no sense to him.

Yet…Kenshin's eyes widened as he caught the implication behind the simple inquiry. Could he honestly say in turn that he had never regretted the way his past turned out? Did he not wish that he could understand his mistake before his life spiraled down the doomed path of a killer?

Repentance had always been the sole purpose of his life; why would he repent for what he had done if he'd never regretted it in the first place?

It was a bitter irony, Kenshin knew, that he could despise his past with such vigor even when he knew that particular path to be inevitable, but could not bring himself to reject the impersonation of his past when it…he…was pleading for understanding, for forgiveness. It was as though his loyalties were torn in two – to guilt and to simple human emotions. He could not forgive himself, but somehow, he _wanted_ to. He wanted to see relief on that helpless, pain-ridden face.

"I can't hate you. There is no way I can hate you." _You are me. I cannot hate you without hating myself._

The expression on Battousai's face upon hearing the statement roused a peculiar feeling in the pit of his heart – it felt like the small smile Tomoe gave him when they worked in the fields, felt like Kaoru as she bustled around the kitchen in an attempt at food, so full of life and determination; it felt like an ordinary day at the dojo, with his friends raising hell over the last piece of food and him raising a mediating hand.

To Kenshin, it felt like warmth after a whole day of darkness.

It was a strange way to reconcile with one's past, having to face "it" literally; but in the end, the rurouni was glad that he had found a way to make peace with himself, to lay the nagging guilt to rest. After all, repentance could hardly quell the self-loathing that had built up in all those years.

Gathering Battousai – who had promptly fallen unconscious in his arms – onto his back, Kenshin wondered if finding internal peace in a field of corpses was yet another joke from despicable Fate.

* * *

**xZig-zagx: **somehow, homework seems a very distant thing to me now that I've had a three-month summer holiday…I am sorry that the story's been on hiatus. If I am honest enough it has nothing to do with writer's block…(cough)

**Ms. Zeal: **now the sappy reunion scene is over, we can move on to darkness…this story is currently revolving around angst and darkness and plot! Katsura's in for next chapter, as is Saitou and his pretty company.

**PhoebeOtaku: **I think I am hating Econ now…got a unsatisfactory grade in the CE, that's what. Anyway, I'm trying to re-read my story so as to remember what the heck I'd set up in the past…not that I want to admit it, but I am forgetting. Isn't that a depressing thought.

**Night-Owl123: **(cringes in guilt) this can't be called "soon"…but anyway, sorry for the late update, I hope the next chapter will be up soon.

**Hikari Tsuki Chi: **Oh shit? I am wondering what that exclamation refers to…whatever that means, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

**Lilmatchgirl007: **thanks for the compliment! Though I updated really slowly…I apologize…

**Nekotsuki: **it's been a few months since I've sent you anything…congratulations on finishing Tanabata Jasmine – I am hoping for Snowblind. I think I really got led off by Fullmetal Alchemist…have to work on both Kenshin stories first! I am trying to resist starting a multi-chaptered FMA story because I KNOW I'll never finish it at this rate. I think I'll send you another chapter of Final Chess Piece next. See ya!

**Romm: **I'm glad that someone actually cares about the random OCs that appear in my story. Takehashi and Kenshin will be crossing paths some time again, before which you can guess his reactions.

**Ghost Whisper: **Yeah, time travel is one of the cool things I like, but it can be so difficult to write at times. But it's fun, and that is what counts, right? By the way, I feel really honoured to have my fic put up in your archive!

**Saitouu Ryuuji: **Korosu Iikagen? I haven't heard of that name before. Is he some Choshu bigwig or something?

**Himura Arashi: **thanks for your support. This fanfic will be continued at all cost, so don't you worry.

**Skenshingumi: **I am working on the possibilities one by one… I hope I won't confuse myself, which I am already doing. And yeah, I have a LOT of problems with grammar…most of the time I get verb tenses wrong. You aren't the first person who have noticed that…(sigh)

**Sailor-Earth13: **I understand your doubt of this fic…just looking at chapter 1 all over again makes me want to tear my fic into tiny little pieces (which is why I seldom do that) my style at that time seemed to be lighter and everything I wrote then seemed to bend on the supernatural side… but considering that I started this fic 2 years ago, I can't really say anything…

**Swirly: **(gasp) you know Chinese! Is it your first language? Are you from Hong Kong? Taiwan? Mainland? (excited squeak) Funny that one can communicate with those " ni3 hao3 ma1" things…my Putonghua is getting rusty…

**AthrunZallaLover:** Thanks a lot, I'm trying to get the story panned out as soon as I can…wait for me, ne?

**Kawaii meeh:** I know I haven't been updating in about…10 months (nervous twitch) as I said, I have no excuse to offer. I'm lazy I know…but I really hope you enjoy this installment.

**Shadowguard: **Thanks for the con-crit…I know I've been using too much fangirl Japanese on this story, which is why I am putting up a Glossary in my other piece. If you're not sure about any of the words, feel free to ask! Sorry I have you confused.

* * *


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